Optimal postoperative pain management: redefining the role for opioids

Fear of pain is deeply rooted among patients who are about to have surgery.1 Satisfactory perioperative pain management is crucial to assuring a good patient experience, optimising postoperative outcomes, and enhancing functional recovery after surgery.2 Despite decades of research showing the benefits of various new analgesic strategies, many patients endure severe postoperative pain,3 and this holds true across all age groups and continents, even after surgery widely considered to be minor.4 A 2016 study from the USA, which enrolled 799 449 patients, showed that reliance on opioid analgesics as the mainstay for perioperative pain management is still widespread.