New approach for treatment of prolonged postoperative pain: APS Out-Patient Clinic

Conclusions The APS-OPC provides a fluent fast-track method of ensuring effective multimodal analgesia in the subacute recovery phase after surgery. Even strong opioids can be safely used after discharge and then tapered off in close supervision of the APS-OPC anaesthesiologist. As the APS-OPC was implemented in close collaboration with the MPC, the multidisciplinary resources are easily available during the course of the APS-OPC treatment. Implications The first two years of the APS-OPC have shown that a significant number of surgical patients benefit from continuing active pain management after discharge from hospital. This fast-track service provides physician-supervised titration of analgesics to improve pain relief in the subacute phase. An important task of the APS-OPC is to ensure that strong opioids are not inappropriately continued after recovery. Another goal of the APS-OPC is to identify patients in need of multidisciplinary pain management services to prevent chronification.
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Pain - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research