Management of Perioperative Pain in the 21st Century – Lessons Learned and How to Move On?

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on management of perioperative pain. Perioperative pain is an important issue in global health-care policy as it affects a large population of people worldwide, during different phases of life from childhood to adulthood to old age, in a multitude of settings, in hospital or during ambulatory care. Surgery can reduce the risk of death and improve patient’s quality of life, yet, it frequently includes pain which can last for days, weeks, and months following the procedure. This pain is associated with short- and long-term harms. Perioperative pain medicine is multi-disciplinary, involving anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists and physiotherapists, in different phases of care.  The literature describes considerable variability in care, at the local, national and international levels.

Twenty years into the 21^st century, we have an opportunity to appraise how this type of pain is being managed.  Such a process could contribute towards shaping progress in this field over the coming years.

We invite healthcare professionals and researchers involved in the care of surgical patients to address topics such as the ones listed below and to contribute an original research article, meta-analysis, review, or observational study for this Special Issue.

1. Are opioids over- or under-prescribed to patients undergoing surgery?
2. Opioid-free anesthesia and opioid-free analgesia – what is the evidence? Does it work in practice?
3. Is it possible to use precision medicine for management of acute pain?
4. Acute pain management of pediatric/adult/older adults [when resources are limited].
5. Pros and cons of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) for optimizing outcomes such as pain.  
6. Integrating a perioperative pain service into the Perioperative Surgical Home - are outcomes improved? Is this a viable approach?
7. Big data methods in studying acute pain - is this is a useful approach for creating knowledge?
8. Is there evidence that multi-disciplinary perioperative pain management works in the real world?
9. What is quality acute pain management? How can it be provided in countries with limited resources/in high resource countries?
10. Psychologists have a role in management of acute post-operative pain - pros and cons.
11. Techniques for wound infiltration for abdominal/orthopedic/obstetric & gynecologic surgery.
12. Do NSAIDs really prevent bone healing after surgery?  What is the evidence?

Prof. Winfried Meissner
Dr. Ruth Zaslansky
Guest Editors

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