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Accreditation Dings - August 2013 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Page 61 P A I N M A N A G E M E N T people don't feel too bad anymore." As part of the study, post-operative pain scores were also assessed after 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 and 48 hours. The highest average came at the 2-hour mark — a mere 2.3. Compare that to what Dr. Feierman experienced in 1985. "I probably would have rated the pain in the high 8s," he says. And sustained pain relief isn't Ex-parel's only benefit. "One of the good things about the drug is that it's not an intense block like novocaine," says Dr. Feierman. "You can get the area really anesthetized, but not completely numb. You also eliminate a lot of the side effects you get with narcotics. More and more patients are morbidly obese or may have sleep apnea or other comorbidities. You worry about sending those people home with narcotics. The same is true with the large elderly population. When you can give people a local anesthetic that works for 3 days, you eliminate most of those problems." Incidentally, Dr. Feierman recently needed another small hernia repair. "I asked for Exparel," he says. "And I went back to work the next morning." — Jim Burger -------------------------------- seems to me as if there's less pain with it," he says. "I've heard others say the same thing — the majority of people don't even have to take narcotics afterward. I also like the fact that with adhesives, you can get fixation into areas where you can't use mechanical fixation." A recent trend toward absorbable devices has also found favor with some surgeons, but the efficacy jury is still out. "You'd think that there'd be less pain with absorbable tacks than permanent ones," says Dr. Voeller, "but there's no data that says absorbable tacks cause less pain." What about using no fixation? "With laparoscopic surgery, people have looked into it," says Dr. Voeller. "The recurrence rate when

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