Management of post-operative pain

Although traditional methods of administering postoperative analgesia may be inadequate, they do have the merit of simplicity and familiarity carries a degree of inherent safety. Of the newer techniques which have been introduced, perhaps patient-controlled analgesia has the greatest degree of inherent safety but mishaps may arise as a result of programming error or machine failure. Extradural techniques employing either local analgesic agents or opioids require enhanced patient monitoring.