Pain control following breast augmentation: a qualitative systematic review

Breast augmentation is among the most popular plastic surgery procedures in the United States. Postoperative pain management following breast surgery has traditionally involved intravenous and oral narcotics. However, pain control is not always adequately achieved through these means and may cause unwanted side effects, including headache, nausea, vomiting, constipation, altered mental status, sleep disturbance, and respiratory depression. Alternative forms of pain control have been used successfully in other surgical fields but have been utilized only recently in breast surgery. In this article, the authors systematically review the existing database of high-quality studies involving pain control following cosmetic breast augmentation to determine the best options currently available.