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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | February 2015
P
ain. It's what patients are likely to remember most about
their surgery, regardless of how many times your nurses
smiled or how successful the surgical outcome. What can
you do to manage the fifth vital sign, so patients are ready
for a timely discharge and return to normal life routines as
quickly as possible? We chatted with a few of the nation's leading pain
experts to find out.
Are surgeons and anesthesia providers becoming
more nuanced in their approach to treating pain?
John Stamatos, MD Without question. We've become more specialized
and gotten more comfortable with what we have in our armamentari-
um of pain-relieving tools. Preemptive analgesia is still the basis for
everything. Once someone has pain, it's very difficult to treat.
Preventing pain from happening is best practice. By the time patients
get to recovery, there's less need for narcotics.
Length of stay and patient satisfaction are the buzzwords in every
Post-op Pain
z
REALISTIC APPROACH
Get
patients on their outpatient pain
regimen as quickly as possible and set reasonable expectations
about the discomfort they'll feel.
Jason
Meehan