Postoperative pain management: a practical review, part 1.
OBJECTIVE
The pharmacotherapy and assessment of postoperative pain in general pharmacy practice settings are reviewed.


CONCLUSIONS
Numerous factors related to all levels of society and the health care system contribute to suboptimal treatment of postoperative pain, despite awareness of this challenge for at least the past 30 years and the availability of potent analgesics and tools to help clinicians care for persons with postoperative pain. The consequences of acute pain include clinical, economic, and patient-reported outcomes; thus, improving the treatment of postoperative pain has the potential to improve health care from a broad perspective. Opioids remain the cornerstone of treatment of postoperative pain. Multimodal analgesia also has the potential to improve the pharmacotherapy of postoperative pain. In addition to the appropriate use of drugs, it is important that clinicians be comfortable with equianalgesic dosage conversion, helping ensure that analgesic-related adverse effects are minimal, assessing pain and function, and incorporating this information into patient care.


CONCLUSIONS
Providing optimal management of postoperative pain is a vital goal for all health care providers. There is substantial potential for pharmacists to help meet this goal.
Strassels
Scott A
SA
Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA. scotts1@u.washington.edu
McNicol
Ewan
E
Suleman
Rosy
R
D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004347:Drug Interactions; D006801:Humans; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D010148:Intractable Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D010595:Pharmacists; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000209:etiology
D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid