Postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting in neurosurgical patients

Postoperative pain and postoperative nausea and vomiting are significant problems for neurosurgical patients and their carers. The treatment of these problems is widely perceived to be inadequate, however, especially in patients undergoing craniotomy, and there are few large, randomized controlled trials. The main issue has been fear of side effects, especially those masking neurological signs. A review of the recent literature therefore is justified.

Very little new information has been added to the literature about pain management in craniotomy patients, and postoperative nausea and vomiting management in neurosurgery patients as a whole. The main themes in the literature have been the introduction of multimodal analgesia for craniotomy patients, using simple analgesics as adjuvants to opioids, and innovative neuroaxial analgesia techniques in spinal surgery patients.

There is still a lot of scope to research and refine pain and postoperative nausea and vomiting management in cranial and spinal neurosurgical patients. Large-scale studies are required to define the current state of practice, determine effective treatments and define the incidence of side-effects.