Pediatric acute pain management.

Children are benefiting from the advances made in developmental neurobiology and analgesic pharmacology over the past few decades. Heightened public awareness and increased political pressure from external regulatory agencies are helping to maintain the momentum in improving pediatric pain management. As a result, methods of assessing and managing children's pain are being refined, and new modalities of pain relief are being explored. This review summarizes selected current topics in pediatric acute pain management, with the major emphasis on acute postoperative pain management.