Balanced analgesia: a prerequisite for optimal recovery

Treatment of postoperative pain is provided for humanitarian reasons and to reduce nociception-induced responses which may adversely influence organ function and contribute to morbidityl. Despite tremendous progress in OUT understanding of pain physiology and increased attention from professional and government agencies, clinical surveys continue to indicate that routine pain treatment is unsatisfactory2. The surgeon is often faced with questions of choice of analgesic treatment, risk of side-effects and degree of surveillance, and casi effectiveness. Although awareness and measurement of pain, education and increased use of simple, well established treatment regimens are the key factors in the general improvement of postoperative pain managementl, patients in severe pain with a high risk of adverse outcome may benefit from a more 'high-tech' analgesic programme. Such patients may also require increased attention to integrate pain relief into their postoperative rehabilitation. The -.may be explained as follows.