Hospitals across the country are facing shortages of injectable morphine, fentanyl, and Dilaudid (hydromorphone). As a result, trauma patients, post-surgical patients, and hospitalized cancer patients frequently go undertreated for excruciating pain.

Hospitals, including the ones in which I practice general surgery, are working hard to ameliorate the situation by asking medical staff to use prescription opioid pills such as oxycodone and OxyContin instead of injectables, when possible. But many patients are unable to take oral medication due to their acute illness or post-operative condition. In those cases, we are often asked to use injectable acetaminophen, muscle relaxants, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. But many times those drugs fail to give adequate relief to these patients—which is why they are not the first line of drugs we use.