Portuguese recommendations for the treatment of acute post-operative pain in ambulatory surgery

Abstract

Control of Acute Postoperative Pain is one of the most important aspects to getting quality results in the field of outpatient surgery. Despite all the technological and pharmacological advances, pain, remains the postoperative symptom most often referred to, being the first cause of readmission after ambulatory surgery, and may also represent an obstacle to the expansion of the CA when you equate the inclusion of surgical procedures more complex.
The aim of this work is to make these recommendations an application tool simple and practical to use and tailored to each Unit Outpatient Surgery, in order to increase the efficiency of this scheme surgical and patient satisfaction.

These recommendations are the result of joint work of 17 Portuguese Anesthesiologists, from hospitals with different realities in the practice of ambulatory surgery.
The first consensus meeting was based on the presentation and discussion of all protocols for postoperative analgesia of the various institutions represented in the working group. This analysis proved to be a starting point for consensus on these recommendations and also allowed detection of gaps in the legislation that led to one of the sub-working groups to study a proposal to amend the law.

In several meetings subsequent analysis was performed and detailed discussion of the subject, always using the latest scientific evidence published.
The conclusions of the various meetings were later released and again discussed in meetings most comprehensive, particularly in Iberian Congress of APCA (Portuguese Association of Ambulatory Surgery).