Understanding Post Operative Pain Medications

Unfortunately, pain following major surgery is inevitable, but there are several very effective methods available to control the pain following surgery.
 

Intravenous Injections
Medications to reduce your postoperative pain can be given through your intravenous (I.V.) line. The most common medication used in this manner is morphine (or one of the newer synthetic morphine-type drugs). These injections are usually given by the nurse immediately following surgery until you feel that your pain is being adequately controlled. Be sure to tell your nurse when you need more pain medication. Narcotic medication given by intravenous injection acts quickly, but wears off quickly as well. Any narcotic medication may cause nausea and vomiting. You may need another type of medication that will reduce this side effect of the narcotic pain medications.
 

Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA)
One of the newest and most effective methods of controlling pain after surgery is the PCA pump. This pump is attached to your I.V. line and controlled by a small computer. You will have a button that you can push when you need to have something for pain. The pump delivers a small dose of medication such as morphine directly into your I.V. line. The small computer controls how much medication you are receiving so you will not get too much. This frees you of having to call a nurse every time you need pain medication. You are in control of how much and how often you receive pain medication.
 

Intramuscular Injections
In some cases, the old standby of intramuscular injections (shots into the muscle of the buttocks or arm) of pain medication is still the best. The advantages of this type of injection are that the pain relief is longer acting than pain medications given through the I.V. Pain medications injected into the muscles are slowly absorbed into the body over 2-3 hours. If you are sleepy or groggy after being put under anesthesia, this may be more effective for you until you can focus on controlling the PCA pump.
 

Pills by Mouth
Before you go home you will have to switch to pills to control your pain. There are many different types of pain pills that can be prescribed to help control your pain. Generally, most pain pills are not as strong as medications that are injected. They also take approximately 30 minutes to be absorbed from the stomach and begin to ease your pain. Most pain pills last approximately 3 or 4 hours, although there are several new long acting pain medications that last up to 8 hours. We begin to switch you over to pills before you are scheduled to leave the hospital. You should watch for any signs of allergies to the pain medications, such as a rash or itching, and tell us if these occur.
 

Epidural Catheter
If you have had surgery using an epidural type of anesthetic, you may receive pain control using a catheter. An epidural anesthetic is a type of spinal block where a needle is inserted into the bony spinal canal and a plastic catheter is inserted into the epidural space between the spinal sac and the vertebra. This catheter can be left in place after surgery so pain medications can be injected straight into the epidural space around the nerves of the spine. This reduces the pain in the lower half of the body (if the catheter is in the low back). One advantage to this type of pain control is that it takes less medication to control your pain. There is also less of an effect on your brain so you are able to think more clearly.