Papers of the Week

The efficiency and quality of postoperative pain management may be considered unsatisfactory in Europe as well as the United States. Notwithstanding our better understanding of the physiology of pain and the development of new analgesia procedures, the satisfaction of patients could not be enhanced to the same degree. Obstetrics and gynecology are no exception to this statement. In fact, obstetrics and gynecology are surgical departments at which patients experience the greatest severity of postoperative pain. Current concepts of postoperative pain management are largely based on the administration of systemic non-opioid and opioid analgesics supplemented with regional analgesia procedures and/or peripheral nerve blockades and, in some cases, the administration of other pain-relieving pharmaceutical agents. Based on the existing body of evidence, it would be appropriate to develop procedure-related concepts of analgesia. The concepts are based on the special circumstances of the respective department, and the scheme of analgesia is aligned to the respective interventions. Generally, however, a surgeon's individual experience in dealing with the procedures and substances could be more significant than the theoretical advantages demonstrated in preceding investigations.