The Role of Opioids and Non-Opioids in Postoperative Pain Relief; A Narrative Review

Postoperative analgesia is one of the important basics of practical recovery after surgery. Pain relief has an important physiological advantage in preventing acute pain turning into a chronic pain and aims at early mobilization with decreasing infection, healing wound time, and hospital stay and /or hospital readmission in addition to eliminating adverse effect related to over sedation. Estimation of postoperative analgesia technique depends on the intensity of dynamic pain and the possible side effects of analgesic medications and techniques which can delay discharge. The key role in improving postoperative pain relates to three steps; 1. Patient education in the decision concerning their specific treatment. 2. Team skills and knowledge for different drugs and technique like acute pain services available towards 24 hours/ day. 3, Physician in communication with the patient is the essential point. Using low dose of opioid drug with NSAIDs or synergistic analgesia or multimodal analgesia at various points along pain pathway to support pain relief with less adverse effect is becoming increasingly common for post-operative pain relief.