Postoperative pain.

Treatment of postoperative pain has not received sufficient attention by the surgical profession. Recent developments concerned with acute pain physiology and improved techniques for postoperative pain relief should result in more satisfactory treatment of postoperative pain. Such pain relief may also modify various aspects of the surgical stress response, and nociceptive blockade by regional anesthetic techniques has been demonstrated to improve various parameters of postoperative outcome. It is therefore stressed that effective control of postoperative pain, combined with a high degree of surgical expertise and use of other perioperative therapeutic interventions including nutrition and mobilization, should be combined to improve overall perioperative care and surgical outcome.