Abstract
Postoperative pain relief has two practical aims. The first is provision of subjective comfort, which is desirable for humanitarian reasons. The second is inhibition of trauma-induced nociceptive impulses to blunt autonomic and somatic reflex responses to pain, and to enhance subsequent restoration of function by allowing the patient to breathe, cough and move more easily. Subsequently, it has been assumed that these effects may reduce pulmonary, cardiovascular, thromboembolic and other complications and improve all-over postoperative outcome. However, the effects of nociceptive blockade and pain relief on postoperative morbidity are still debatable, despite the fact that pain relief with epidural or spinal local anesthetics has a pronounced inhibitory effect on the surgical stress response in lower body operations, but less so in upper body procedures (1–3).
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Kehlet, H. (1994). Effect of Postoperative Pain on Surgical Outcome. In: Stanley, T.H., Ashburn, M.A. (eds) Anesthesiology and Pain Management. Developments in Critical Care Medicine and Anesthesiology, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0816-4_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0816-4_13
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