The American Pain Society released new clinical practice guidelines to optimize post-surgical pain and published the guideline in The Journal of Pain, according to a News Medical report.
The guidelines include 32 recommendations for physicians to optimize pain management after surgery and reduce the risk of prolonged postoperative pain, mood disorders and physical impairment. A 23-member panel including experts from anesthesia, pain management, surgery, nursing and other specialties authored the guidelines based on evidence from more than 6,500 scientific abstracts.
Here are five takeaways on the guidelines:
1. Physicians can administer acetaminophen and/or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to both adult and pediatric patients as part of a multimodal analgesia for postoperative pain management.
2. Consider surgical site-specific peripheral regional anesthetic techniques that have proven efficacy for certain procedures.
3. Administering spinal analgesia for major thoracic and abdominal procedures is appropriate, especially for patients with risk for cardiac and pulmonary complications or prolonged intestinal distress.
4. There were 11 strong recommendations based on weak or moderate evidence, including:
• Provide patient-and family-centered care and education individually tailored to the patient for postoperative pain
• Oral opioid administration is preferred over intravenous administration for postoperative analgesia
• Consider preoperative celecoxib doses for appropriate adult patients
5. The guidelines also touched on providing clinicians with access to pain specialists for patients with inadequately controlled postoperative pain. They also showed non-pharmacological therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapies and transcutaneous elective nerve stimulation can be effective adjuncts to the pharmacological therapies.
