Pain after surgery-acute becomes chronic: Might there be a silver ROCKet?

• Published in: Anaesthesia and intensive care Vol. 45; no. 4; pp. 439 - 440
• Main Author: Schug, S. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-07-2017; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Bone surgery; Humans; Intensive care; Investigations; Ostomy; Pain; Pain, Postoperative; Prevention; Risk factors; Silver
• ISSN: 0310-057X; 1448-0271
• DOI: 10.1177/0310057X1704500404

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has promoted 2017 as the Global Year Against Pain After Surgery. Most anaesthetists would understand this to mean that the focus of this campaign is the treatment of acute postsurgical pain. And this is a valid assumption as we see in our daily practice the severity of acute postoperative pain and the need for its treatment, not only to provide humane relief of suffering, but also to improve and speed up postoperative recovery and enable active postoperative rehabilitation. This again will lead to reduced postoperative morbidity and possibly even mortality. The widespread development of anaesthesia-based acute pain services and the routine of providing excellent evidence-based postoperative analgesia in most hospitals has been the response of our profession to this challenge.