[Concepts for treatment of postoperative pain]

Adequate control of postoperative pain does not only improve patient satisfaction, but is also indicated from a medical point of view. Besides conventional non-opioid analgesics and opioids, more sophisticated analgesia concepts like intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) and epidural analgesia may be indicated. Modalities and practical aspects of these concepts are discussed and briefly described. It is believed that the effectiveness of improved analgesia will be increased by integrating analgesia concepts into a multimodal approach of intensified mobilisation, early enteral nutrition and frequent respiratory therapy of the postoperative patient. In conclusion, there is good evidence of improved analgesia from PCA and epidural analgesia. Data on outcome improvement by analgesia is still contradictory, but improvement of patient satisfaction is without doubt.