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P A I N
C O N T R O L
LOCAL AID Regional anesthesia is an
effective and efficient alternative to opioid use.
meaning they can be fast-tracked out of the recovery room. The extra
expense of opioid alternatives will be more than made up in faster discharges, a PACU free of bottlenecks and, ultimately, the potential to
add more cases.
• Incision injections. A simple pain-control solution that isn't done
enough is injecting local anesthesia at the incision site. For example,
patients who undergo abdominal surgery experience somatic, not visceral, pain. It's not their stomach or intestine that is hurting; what's
hurting is the skin around the incision site. Patients guard against the
pain by breathing in short, shallow and multiple breaths, and by refusing to ambulate, which contributes to a host of potential adverse
events. One solution: Injecting Exparel, a bupivacaine time-released
bolus, at the incision site creates opioid-free pain relief for up to 72
hours.
