5-Minute Summary: Is an Opioid Prescription Necessary after Joint Replacement in 2026?

Orthopedic surgeons account for the most perioperative opioid prescriptions among all surgical specialties. Despite the growing emphasis on multimodal analgesia, consistent opioid-free recovery after total joint arthroplasty (TJA) has not been widely demonstrated. Suzetrigine (Journavx™), a peripherally acting sodium-channel inhibitor, represents a novel non-opioid option for postoperative pain. This study evaluated whether adding suzetrigine to a standardized, second-generation multimodal protocol was associated with high rates of opioid-free recovery after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA).