[The problem of adequate analgesia in the postoperative period]

Despite numerous methods of drug and non-drug analgesia, acute pain relief remains a pressing problem, particularly for the postoperative period. Individual protocols of analgesia are still to be developed. Standard doses of analgesics, administered in some intensive care wards, may be inadequate in some patients. An increase of an opioid dose may lead to untoward reactions. Therefore, we consider therapy with nonsteroid antiinflammatory drugs (ketorolac) justified. An important trend in improvement of the efficacy of drug analgesia is evaluation of a sufficient analgesic dose. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), administered in accordance with the patient's request, is an alternative to the traditional analgesia administered according to indications (planned analgesia). The main advantage of PCS in comparison with traditional administration of analgesics are effective analgesia meeting the individual requirements of a patient, rapid desired effect, a shorter period without analgesia, stable concentration of the analgesic in the plasma, time saving for the staff, and a lower incidence of side effects. PCA has been used in 227 patients in intensive care wards of Research Center of Surgery. The majority of patients appreciate this method high, which results in adequate analgesia in 82-95% cases.