• Blessing Ogbemudia, Ge Qu, Chris Henson, Lida Esfandiary, Rene Przkora, and Sandra Victor.
• Department of Anesthesiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA.
• Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2022 Mar 1; 26 (3): 241-246.

Purpose Of ReviewThe aim of this review is to discuss the use of tramadol in the perioperative period. There is no doubt that tramadol has revolutionized pain treatment, making it important to understand the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in order to provide patients with the safest and most effective analgesia.Recent FindingsTramadol is a centrally acting synthetic analgesic with a multimode of action used to help treat moderate to severe pain. Pharmacologically, the unique opioid acts as a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, while its metabolite, O-desmethyltramadol, acts on the μ-opioid receptor. The analgesic strength of tramadol is about one-tenth that of morphine, making it a relatively safe analgesic. Potential side effects of tramadol include nausea, vomiting, constipation, pruritus, and respiratory depression; however, the severity of these symptoms is minimal compared to traditional opioids. Although some of the perioperative uses of tramadol may be rare, it is a pain management option to consider when alternatives have proved ineffective.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

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