Commentary: Better late than never to optimize pain management in cardiac surgery

Pain management is a vital component of perioperative care for the cardiac surgical patient. Studies suggest that the overwhelming majority of patients routinely experience moderate-to-severe pain with cough or movement following cardiac surgery, and adequacy of pain management represents one of the few potentially modifiable risk factors that predict one's health care quality of life following cardiac surgery.1,2 Despite the fast-track cardiac surgery era, which reduced the magnitude of opioids administered for cardiac surgery,3 opioids generally remain the primary agents to combat perioperative pain.