Narinder Rawal

Adequate postoperative analgesia is a prerequisite for successful ambulatory surgery and remains a challenge. The problem of pain at home may be increasing because previously inpatient surgical procedures are becoming ambulatory and it is expected that the number and complexity of ambulatory surgical procedures will continue to increase. In 1998, we described the use of surgical-site and perineural catheter techniques that allowed patients to self-administer local anesthetics through disposable, elastomeric pumps for pain management at home. In recent years, availability of improved elastometric and other lightweight pump devices, the general trend of avoiding strong opioids and the preference for non-opioid analgesic techniques has led to increasing use of this technique after a variety of ambulatory surgical procedures. The two most common techniques are perineural and wound catheter infusions (WCI). Current evidence suggests that both are effective, although comparative studies are lacking. Perineural techniques are highly effective but are technically challenging and require labor-intensive and expensive home care that can be provided only in specialized centers. Disappointing past experience with implementation of perineural catheter techniques in inpatients suggests that it is unrealistic to expect their routine use in most ambulatory centers. Surgical-site catheter technique is a simpler, safer, and less expensive alternative and therefore more likely to gain widespread use. Only controlled comparisons can show whether the current belief about the superiority of ambulatory perineural techniques over WCI is justified. Such studies should address technical failures, side effects, home care of the medically unsupervised or undersupervised patient, and cost-effectiveness to demonstrate which of the 2 techniques is most appropriate for a particular procedure.

Survey results continue to reveal that postoperative pain is insufficiently managed throughout Europe and the rest of the world. However, the efficient use of existing resources, as well as the introduction of novel technologies, may aid in its improvement. Use of an acute pain service has the potential to improve pain management through specialized patient care and utilization of effective analgesic techniques. Multimodal analgesic techniques, which include adjuvant non-opioids and/or regional analgesic techniques, can provide effective analgesia and reduce the amount of systemic opioids (or obviate the need) for postoperative pain management. Patient-controlled analgesia modalities may also offer improvements to pain management, as in practice they provide pain relief superior to the intermittent administration of bolus doses of opioids. A novel patient-controlled analgesia modality that has been approved by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) for the treatment of acute, moderate-to-severe pain is the needle-free, pre-programmed fentanyl HCl iontophoretic transdermal system. This system was shown in a recent US clinical trial to be comparable in efficacy to a standard regimen of morphine intravenous patient-controlled analgesia. Adverse events associated with the use of the fentanyl iontophoretic transdermal system are generally similar to those experienced by patients using intravenous morphine patient-controlled analgesia. Considerations regarding the selection of patients for treatment with the fentanyl iontophoretic transdermal system are similar to those with other patient-controlled analgesia modalities; sufficient upper limb mobility and alertness are required to operate the system. Utilization of the fentanyl iontophoretic transdermal system, together with the guidance of an effective acute pain service, may lead to improvements in postoperative pain management.

Postoperative pain is a common problem following ambulatory breast augmentation surgery. This study was performed to compare standard of care (oral analgesics) with patient-controlled incisional regional analgesia (PCRA) for postoperative pain management at home for 48 h. A second aim was to compare the analgesic efficacy of ropivacaine 0.25% vs. 0.5%. Surgery was performed under local anaesthesia and monitored anesthesia care. Sixty adults (ASA 1–2) were randomized to one of two groups. Patients in Group PCRA could self-administer ropivacaine 0.25% 10 mL in the left breast and ropivacaine 0.5% in the right breast. Patients in Group T (tablets) received our standard of care treatment, i.e. oral paracetamol 1 g four times a day and oral ibuprofen 500 mg three times a day. Parameters measured included: analgesic requirements (in post-anesthesia care unit, PACU and post-discharge), pain intensity (visual analogue scale), patient satisfaction, global analgesia, side-effects, and quality of recovery. Pain scores were significantly lower in Group PCRA compared to Group T at all time periods (P < 0.05). No differences were found in pain scores between the right and left breasts. Significantly more patients in Group T requested analgesics in the recovery unit (27 vs. 7; P = 0.001) and also at home (20 vs. 11; P < 0.02). More patients in the tablet group had nausea and vomiting (10 vs. 3; P < 0.05). Global analgesia on day 2 was significantly better in PCRA group; however, patient satisfaction was similar in both groups. More patients in the tablet group had sleep disturbance and woke up at night due to pain. Pain relief after ambulatory breast augmentation is superior with incisional PCRA when compared to oral analgesic combination of paracetamol and ibuprofen. Incisional PCRA was associated with minimal side-effects and less sleep disturbance. There was no difference in the analgesic efficacy between ropivacaine 0.25% and 0.5%.

Purpose of review The purpose of this review is to present the most important recent studies on the clinical use of the combined spinal-epidural technique. Recent findings The predominant recent literature on the combined spinal-epidural technique involves its use in obstetrics. A 2004 UK survey showed that the use of the technique is increasing. Studies are presented which show the role of intrathecal drug selection for improving the quality of the combined spinal-epidural technique for anaesthesia for Caesarean section. The pros and cons of using the method as opposed to traditional epidural for labour analgesia are still being debated; the results of a meta-analysis show that combined spinal-epidural provides faster onset of analgesia and increased maternal satisfaction but the incidence of pruritus is high. This review also looks at some technical aspects of the technique. Summary The use of combined spinal-epidural is widespread and increasing particularly in obstetric anaesthesia and analgesia. Recent literature provides new information about the choice of drugs and technical aspects of the technique and also about its advantages and drawbacks in obstetric and non-obstetric patients.