Postoperative Pain Management for Cardiac Surgery: Do We Need New Blocks?

MODERN MANAGEMENT of postoperative pain should be multimodal and encompass acute pain suppression and prevention of chronic pain; that is, postoperative pain persisting for at least 3 months (International Classification of Diseases definition).1 Cardiac surgery is no exception, with a prevalence of persistent pain estimated from 27% to 41%.2 A reduction in the incidence of persistent postoperative pain, with the use of regional anesthesia or local anesthetic infusions, has been reported for thoracotomy, caesarean section and breast cancer surgery.
Source: Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Editorial Source Type: research