Acute pain management – new challenges

Abstract: Although almost universal in UK hospitals today, inpatient acute pain services (APS) were uncommon prior to 1990 when a review by the commission on the provision of surgical services demonstrated significant shortfalls in patient care. Established to provide simple analgesic interventions in the postoperative setting, today's APS faces many new challenges, such as the management of acute neuropathic pain and peri-operative pain control in patients with chronic pain or who are opioid tolerant. The APS has a developing role to educate, to prevent post-surgical chronic pain and to facilitate enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programmes. New ways of utilizing old drugs, and novel regional analgesic techniques are helping the modern APS to meet the demands of inpatient pain management.
Source: Anaesthesia and intensive care medicine - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: CORE: Pain Source Type: research