Post-operative pain therapy - an interdisciplinary necessity

Patients are entitled to receive adequate pain relief following surgery. After minor and medium procedures, basic analgesia is adequate for most patients. However, this concept is not as effective as intravenous patient-controlled analgesia or regional methods of pain management after very stressful and painful major surgery. Especially regional analgesia with catheter techniques lead to earlier and more intensive mobilization and rehabilitation. Epidural analgesia can reduce cardiopulmonary complications, postoperative ileus, and the hospitalization period. This may lead to considerable economic advantages. However the benefits of an appropriate pain management become only evident if not performed in isolation, but as an integrated part of a multimodal perioperative approach based on clinical pathways. This requires interdisciplinary management programs, as well as closer cooperation with those involved in outpatient treatment during the postoperative follow-up.