Do not stop Suboxone or methadone on your own before surgery. The sources say buprenorphine, the medicine in Suboxone, should not be routinely discontinued before surgery, and methadone is typically continued at the preoperative dose. After surgery, both medicines are usually continued, along with multimodal pain care, which means using more than one kind of pain treatment. For methadone, the usual plan is to keep the baseline dose going and add short-acting opioids if needed for pain. For buprenorphine, the usual plan is to continue the preoperative dose, and some patients may need extra pain medicine or a dose change after surgery.

Before surgery, your team should know your full medicine history and pain history. If you take methadone, one source says the clinic should be contacted to verify the dose and timing. If you take buprenorphine, it may stay attached to opioid receptors for days after stopping, so other opioids may not work well right away.

Verify the exact plan with your surgical or anesthesia team in case they want something different for you.