Over the last 5 years, there have been rapidly increasing rates of emergency department (ED) visits for opioid toxicity and opioid-related mortality across Canada, largely driven by the increased prevalence of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in the unregulated drug supply. In addition to the risks of overdose, opioid use among people who inject drugs can lead to other serious complications, including infective endocarditis (IE) and other invasive infections.
This study examines trends in rates of hospitalizations for IE and other serious infections among people with an opioid use disorder (OUD) and the sequelae of those hospitalizations in Ontario, Canada.
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