(AGENPARL) – NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT (USA) mer 15 marzo 2023

“One of the biggest changes in anesthesia in the last decade has been the rising use of multimodal—or multiple methods for—pain control, which has resulted in less opioid use,” says Dr. Zafar. “This includes simple approaches such as giving patients Tylenol as part of their pre-operative care.”

There also are different types of anesthetics, including non-narcotic medicines, Dr. Zafar explains. Some patients can have NSAIDs for pain, partly depending on the surgery—if it’s a hip or knee surgery, for example, this may work for them.

Some studies have shown that regional block anesthetics can be as effective as opioids, Dr. Zafar adds. A nerve block is delivered to the surgical site by injection or infusion through a catheter. It can block the initial pain of surgery in a limb or even numb the body from the waist down during childbirth.

However, the block’s effectiveness decreases each hour after the surgery, and some patients may need more pain medication as the block wears off. For instance, those who undergo orthopaedic surgeries may be given a multimodal prescription (that could include some opioid medicine) to help with pain as the nerve block starts to wear off.

At one time, some patients went home with prescriptions of opioid medicine that were beyond what they needed (a 30-day prescription for pills, for instance), which put some of them at risk for addiction; now, patients typically get just enough pills for a day or two, depending on their needs. “In general, for everything short of major procedures, opioids are not usually needed for more than a few days—if at all,” Dr. Tonnessen says.

“Combined with minimally invasive approaches and getting patients active after some operations, multimodal pain control has contributed to quicker recoveries,” Dr. Zafar says. “We’re getting to the point where we’re able to provide surgery for patients with much less pain and fewer side effects, and this gets people back to their baseline functional status much more quickly.”

Fonte/Source: https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/anesthesia-opioids-anxiety-surgery-questions-answered