CD-ROM includes illustrated case studies and approx. 300 self assessment questions.

Primum non nocere... The fact that a surgical procedure can leave any kind of pain casts a shadow over this tenet, which is seen as the basis of medical practice and anchor of its principle ethic... It is all the more surprising in that medicine has only paid attention to this paradoxical chronic pain situation for the past few years. Clarifying the knowledge acquired in this field has become all the more urgent for any care-giver today confronted by a legitimate request from patients: Why and how can a surgical procedure, which is supposed to bring relief, leave behind an unacceptable sequela? This is the approach which the contributors to this new subject of major clinical interest invite you to follow as you work your way through this book.

Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

Currently, two-thirds of patients undergoing surgery experience acute postoperative pain (POP), which increases the possibility of immediate postoperative complications and facilitates the development of chronic POP. Post-surgical pain does not have a useful biological function, so it must be prevented, avoided, and/or eliminated. The objective of the rational management of acute pain after surgery is to facilitate the rapid recovery of patients with a prompt integration into their usual preoperative activities. The global crisis of opioid abuse has forced us to use other analgesic drugs as well as regional analgesia techniques that are part of effective multimodal analgesia. The non-pharmacological approach has also gained importance in the comprehensive management of acute POP. This book reviews advances in the understanding, management, and complications of POP.

This textbook provides an overview of pain management useful to specialists as well as non-specialists, surgeons, and nursing staff.