• W Schwenk and B Schinkel.
• Allgemein- und Viszeralchirurgie, Asklepios Klinik Altona, Hamburg, Deutschland. w.schwenk@asklepios.com
• Chirurg. 2011 Jun 1;82(6):539-54; quiz 555-6.

AbstractScientific studies have proven without doubt that an optimized perioperative pain therapy will improve patient comfort, reduce postoperative complications, enhance postoperative recovery and shorten the length of postoperative hospital stay. It is necessary to incorporate the acute pain therapy into a perioperative multimodal and interdisciplinary therapeutic concept. Local or regional anesthesia will provide the best analgesic effect after surgery and should be considered in all patients. Optimal treatment of patients with peripheral nerve blocks, spinal or epidural analgesia should be treated by a specialized acute pain service. However, only 15-20% of all surgical cases will be taken care of by such a pain service. Therefore, most surgical patients will only receive adequate analgesia if surgeons are familiar with the principles of postoperative pain therapy. Regular assessment of pain perception is the cornerstone of optimized pain therapy. Furthermore, pain assessment will allow the administration and to some extent dosage of analgesic therapy to be delegated to nursing personnel.

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