Management of pain in the critically ill patient

In spite of growing evidence that effective pain management of critically ill human beings decreases their morbidity and mortality, pain is often undertreated in critically ill animals. Reasons for withholding analgesics in these animals have included fear of contributing to cardiopulmonary instability and difficulty in monitoring response to therapy. Appropriately used, analgesics improve the status of critically ill animals. Opioids are the most widely used analgesics but other options exist. Newer methods of analgesic administration include continuous infusions, epidural, local, regional, and transdermal administration.