Abstract
September 2005
Section 1 Basic Surgical and Perioperative Considerations
6 Postoperative PainPostoperative pain is a form of acute pain comprising a constellation of unpleasant sensory, emotional, and mental experiences associated with autonomic, psychological, and behavioral responses precipitated by the surgical injury. Postoperative pain relief provides subjective comfort and blunts autonomic and somatic reflex responses to pain and enhances subsequent restoration of function by allowing the patient to breathe, cough, and move more easily. This chapter offers guidelines for postoperative pain treatment and reviews the mechanisms of action and side effects of commonly used treatment modalities. The basic physiologic mechanisms of acute pain are explained, as are the effects of pain relief. This chapter contains 108 references.
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