Acute Pain Management

Pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as “An aversive sensory and emotional experience typically caused by, or resembling that caused by, actual or potential tissue injury.” Acute pain is defined as a normal, predicted physiologic response to an adverse chemical, thermal, or mechanical stimulus, which generally resolves within 1 month. There are a variety of techniques for the treatment of acute pain – via interventional procedures (such as peripheral nerve blocks and neuraxial interventional techniques), anesthetics, and analgesic and adjuvant medications. In this current opioid crisis era, most clinicians have adopted a multimodal approach to acute pain management to reduce the risk of opioid addiction, which generally includes a combination of interventional procedures, as well as administration of analgesics. This chapter deals with the comprehensive management of acute pain.