Pain management

Abstract

The United States senior population is expected to double over the next 30 years (www.agingstats.gov). According to the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics, 40.3 million inpatient surgical procedures were performed in the United States in 1996, followed closely by 31.5 million outpatient surgeries. These statistics are from 1996 and although the ratio of outpatient to inpatient procedures may have changed in the past 10 years, the total number of surgical procedures per year has not diminished. And certainly, the elderly undergo a disproportionate number of surgical procedures compared with younger age groups. Therefore, acute pain secondary to surgery will continue to be a significant problem for physicians. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.