Intravenous acetaminophen and intravenous ketorolac for management of pediatric surgical pain: a literature review.

Pediatric surgical patients are a population at risk of inadequate pain management. The American Society of Anesthesiologists' 2012 Practice Guidelines for Acute Pain Management in the Perioperative Setting recommend a multimodal approach as the most effective way to prevent and treat pain in children. A multimodal approach entails the use of 2 or more analgesic medications that act by different mechanisms, to maximally target a variety of pain receptors and reduce the potential for side effects. One method for incorporating a multimodal approach is to augment intravenous (IV) opioids with nonopioid IV analgesics. Ketorolac and acetaminophen are the 2 nonopioid IV analgesics currently available for use in the United States. This article provides a review of the literature of IV ketorolac and IV acetaminophen regarding their pharmacology, analgesic efficacy, limitations, and practical considerations, with a focus on patients 16 years of age and younger.