Articles: postoperative-pain.
-
Analgesia is one of the physician's genuine challenges. Pain makes the patient suffering and leads to unfavourable somatic effects as well, which may have negative outcome effects. Sufficient perioperative analgesia depends on well defined organizational conditions. ⋯ Special syringe pumps allow a patient controlled analgesia (PCA) under fixed conditions. Regional anaesthesia via catheter is powerful as well and avoids systemic opioid side effects. In these cases as well, a continuous or patient controlled analgesia is possible.
-
Little has been documented about the development of pain after ophthalmic surgery. This study was designed to assess the incidence and severity of postoperative pain following ophthalmic surgery, and to identify key factors independently associated with development of such pain. ⋯ Patients undergoing certain ophthalmic operations, especially if performed under general anaesthesia, are more likely to experience serious postoperative pain.
-
Early administration of analgesics, generally before awakening from general anesthesia is useful to improve the patient's comfort in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU). Multimodal analgesia includes administration of several analgesics from different pharmacological classes but in almost every combination, morphine or one of its derivatives is included. In the PACU, morphine is titrated using the intravenous route to obtain adequate and rapid pain relief. ⋯ Morphine is often applied using a patient-controlled analgesia device (PCA). After major surgery (especially after radical surgery for malignant disease), intrathecal or epidural analgesia, using a local anesthetic and an opioid is extremely efficient and is combined with other analgesics. Finally, because the affective dimension is extremely important after gynecologic surgery (especially in mutilating interventions), psychologic preparation, patient information and communication are essential components of care.
-
Br J Community Nurs · Feb 2004
Case ReportsUse of strong opioids for non-cancer pain in the community: a case study.
The continued extension of prescribing rights among nurses may necessitate that effective pain management will require more involvement of nurses in the prescription of controlled drugs. The prescription of strong opioid analgesic drugs for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) is viewed as controversial. ⋯ This case study highlights the knowledge gap that exists between pain and addiction medicine and highlights the problems that CNCP patients treated in the community with opioid therapy may encounter. Community nurses are in an ideal position to be instrumental in identifying such vulnerable patients and ensuring that appropriate interventions are available.