Patients and their families will need to be educated about effective pain management, including during the discharge planning process. Under-treatment of pain is prevalent. Increased awareness of patients pain and treatment options will aid both the patients and health care personnel in avoiding under-treatment. Training of staff to follow the guidelines will begin in the coming months. It is the physician s responsibility to treat the patient, not just the disease.
Pain affects patients physically, emotionally, psychologically, socially, and occupationally.
Physicians must be cognizant of patients pain and treat pain effectively if the patient is to be treated successfully. I am careful to describe the proposed surgical procedure as well as the expected post-op course in the hospital and after discharge. Pre-emptive analgesia is based on the idea that analgesia initiated before a nociceptive event will be more effective than analgesia commenced afterwards. The effects of pre-emptive analgesia will outlast the pharmacological duration of action of the analgesic used. The intra-thecal morphine diffuses into the systemic circulation slowly, and provides long duration of action.