Papers of the Week

Severe postoperative pain is principally managed by opioids. While effective, opioids do not provide adequate relief in many patients and cause many side effects including antinociceptive tolerance and opioid-induced hyperalgesia. To evaluate if a combination of intravenous Magnesium, Lidocaine, Ketorolac (MLK cocktail) is a useful rescue therapy through synergistic pharmacological mechanisms for acute pain relief. We present the intravenous combination of magnesium, lidocaine, and ketorolac (MLK cocktail) as a possible rescue for opioid insensitive severe postoperative pain.