title: The changing role of non-opioid analgesic techniques in the management of postoperative pain.
abstract: Given the expanding role of ambulatory surgery and the need to facilitate an earlier hospital discharge, improving postoperative pain control has become an increasingly important issue for all anesthesiologists. As a result of the shift from inpatient to outpatient surgery, the use of IV patient-controlled analgesia and continuous epidural infusions has steadily declined. To manage the pain associated with increasingly complex surgical procedures on an ambulatory or short-stay basis, anesthesiologists and surgeons should prescribe multimodal analgesic regimens that use non-opioid analgesics (e.g., local anesthetics, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, cyclooxygenase inhibitors, acetaminophen, ketamine, alpha 2-agonists) to supplement opioid analgesics. The opioid-sparing effects of these compounds may lead to reduced nausea, vomiting, constipation, urinary retention, respiratory depression and sedation. Therefore, use of non-opioid analgesic techniques can lead to an improved quality of recovery for surgical patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas.
authors.forename: Paul F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000009:adverse effects; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D006801:Humans; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000517:prevention & control*; D020250:Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid