[Treatment of postoperative pain]

The quality and intensity of acute postoperative pain vary according to operation and patient-specific factors, whereby pain measurement is the starting point for the treatment. The principle of multimodal pain relief should be applied in the treatment in order to be able to improve pain relief. The quality of care can be improved and costs reduced with the assistance of an acute pain management team. The future aim is to systematically identify already before the operation those patients who are susceptible to intense postoperative pain and to the progression of pain into a chronic state, as well as an individual, research evidence based pain management plan.