Multi-modal pain management combining paracetamol, NSAIDs, opioids, and local anesthetics is fundamental for enhanced recovery after surgery to improve analgesia and reduce side effects.
Effective pain management is fundamental to enhanced recovery after surgery. Selection of strategies should be tailored to patient and operation. As well as improving the quality of recovery, effective analgesia reduces the host stress response, facilitates mobilization and allows resumption of oral intake. Multi-modal regimens combining paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents where indicated, a potent opioid and a local anaesthetic technique achieve effective analgesia while limiting the dose and thereby side effects of any one agent.
Nimmo et al. (Tue,) studied this question.