One of our facility's surgeons is well known for sending patients home after surgery with 3 opioid pills. That's it. His patients are initially surprised and wonder if that will be...

In the absence of antibiotic alternatives, physicians in the early 1900s had no choice but to treat every infection with penicillin. Chronic pain went through a similar...

Medication errors are all too frequent in the OR. A recent observational study identified an error in 5.3% of all anesthesia medication administrations — roughly 1 of every 20...

If your anesthesia providers rely on inhaled anesthetics and opioids, they're behind the times. As Gary Lawson, MD, says: "I used to knock out patients. Now I knock out...

The pain response is a built-in warning system, nature’s way of protecting us from further harm. Chronic pain is more like nature’s nagging nuisance....

Most patients who are hooked on opioids know exactly when they started down the slippery slope of addiction, and many think back to heading home from surgery...

Welcome to the world of time-release treatments — meds that you administer before or during surgery, but that keep working for days, weeks, months or even years,...

Becoming an opioid-sparing surgeon was the most liberating thing I've done in 25 years of practice. Why? Because before I started down this revolutionary path,...

Safety: How Many Pain Pills Do Patients Really Need; match the number of opioids to the procedure to stop overprescribing.

Pain Control: Cruising Down the ERAS Pathway; Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital likes the way the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery program handles its patients' pain.

Painkillers are often not the answer to post-surgical pain.

Anesthetists share the ingredients to their multimodal approach to 3 painful surgeries.

Sending Patients Home With Pain Pumps. Peripheral nerve catheters are your secret weapon in the quest for prolonged post-surgical pain control.

Why was this N.J. pain management doc barred from practice? Investigators say she displayed erratic and delusional behavior and smelled of alcohol while practicing.

Researchers say a lack of education leads patients to overestimate their post-op pain. "Patients likely overestimate pain due to a lack of understanding of the surgical procedure, fear and anxiety," say researchers.

Safety: Avoid opioid-related respiratory depression. Continuous electronic monitoring tops pulse oximetry or spot checks.

Study: Long-Term Opioid Use Rarely Starts With Surgery. Patients leaving the hospital after surgery are rarely the ones whose chronic opioid use started with a surgeon's prescription.

Do drug-free interventions reduce pain or opioid consumption after total knee arthroplasty? Researchers find that electrotherapy and acupuncture might reduce and delay opioid consumption, but do little to control pain.

Maximize multimodal pain management. Controlling post-op pain with fewer opioids is more important than ever.

Surgery's role in slowing the opioid epidemic. Q&A with TJ Gan, MD, MBA, MHS, FRCA, internationally known post-pain management expert.