Regional analgesia modalities in abdominal and lower limb surgery – comparison of efficacy

Abstract

A significant component of all surgical procedures and postoperative treatment is pain management.Due to the physiological and psychological advantages of pain relief, it is one of the foremost indicators of quality of care. Today, there are various modalities of pain reduction, aimed to reduce patient discomfort andminimize side effects, which can be divided by therapeutic agents used (opioid or non-opioid), route of administration (intravenous, regional, oral, etc.) and modality (con-trolled by patients or “as needed”). Although opioids have proven to be very effective pain relief agents and are commonly used in postoperative analgesia, concerns about their side effects have spurred the development of modified, multimodal treatments that seek to minimize opioid use and associated drawbacks. Enhanced recovery protocols that emphasize sparing administration of opioids are growing in importance, andresulting in reduced length of hospital stay after abdominal and lower limb surgery. To further improve such protocols and optimize postoperative care for individual patient needs, it is imperative to fully assess the efficacy of available drugs and analgesia modalities.