Progress of microneedle patches in analgesic management

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Acute or chronic pain not only impairs quality of life but also triggers a series of psychological problems. Currently, pain management mainly relies on intravenous injection and oral medication, while effective, precise pain management approaches remain lacking. As a novel transdermal drug delivery system, microneedle patches have effectively overcome the limitations of traditional analgesic methods (such as oral and injectable administration), including low bioavailability and poor patient compliance, due to their advantages of minimal invasiveness, painlessness, efficient drug delivery, and controlled release. This review elaborates on the pathogenesis and classification of pain, analyzes the innovative applications of microneedles in pharmacologic analgesia, physical analgesia, and multimodal analgesia, and demonstrates the expanded prospects of this technology in other medical fields such as vaccine delivery, tumor therapy, and chronic disease management. Despite the broad prospects of microneedle analgesic technology, it still faces challenges, including material optimization, long-term safety, and personalized treatment. Future research needs to promote technological innovation and clinical translation through interdisciplinary cooperation, providing new strategies for achieving precise and intelligent pain management.