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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

An Experimental Paradigm for the Prediction of Post-Operative Pain (PPOP)
Published on: January 28, 2010
[Myth of Intraoperative Pain: Reconsidering the Role of Opioids in General Anesthesia]
Abstract:
During general anesthesia, patients cannot experience pain - only nociception. Opioids do not serve as intraoperative analgesics; their role is to blunt autonomic stress responses and reduce the requirements for other anesthetic agents. The concept of balanced anesthesia was developed to minimize the side effects of mono-anesthesia, not to treat intraoperative pain. Opioid-free and opioid-sparing strategies confirm that intraoperative opioids are effective but not indispensable. Framing their use as pain relief is a persistent myth that may promote harmful overprescribing.
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