A Manual for Acute Postoperative Pain Management

Aims to offer complete, practical and clinical guidelines for solving the problem of postoperative pain management. The authors show how to set up and maintain an Acute Pain Service and how to establish a team of clinical specialists to deal with acute pain.

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This manual aims to offer complete, practical, clinical guidelines for solving the problem of postoperative pain management. The authors show you how to set up and maintain an Acute Pain Service at your institution, and how to establish a team of clinical specialists prepared to deal with acute pain. You'll find guidelines and practical recommendations covering all the most important aspects of pain management including: the basics of formulating analgesic therapy; optimal methods of treatment and patient management; organization, policy and procedures; drug delivery; and treatment of adverse events. The first section is a practice-oriented guide to starting an Acute Pain Service, covering basic organizational strategies like planning, marketing, and education. In the next section are reviews of the physiology of pain and a summary of the benefits of analgesic therapy. Key sections review various drug treatment therapies, including patient controlled analgesia, spinal opioids, peripheral nerve blockade, NSAIDs, and other modalities. The protocols and recommendations presented in this manual were developed at the Yale University/Yale-New Haven Hospital Acute Pain Service.
The guidelines are clearly presented and organized for immediate usefulness - ready for you to examine and modify to fit your own clinical needs and the needs of your institution.