Rationale and Goals for Optimal Pain Control in Ambulatory Surgical Centers

More and more complicated surgical and diagnostic procedures are being performed in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). It can be a daunting task to provide adequate analgesia while minimizing side effects. Anesthesia providers are increasingly facing higher social, financial, and administrative pressures to decrease opioid consumption, shorten operating room turnaround time, avoid anesthetic side effects and complications, and ensure timely discharge. Multimodal analgesia strategy, including non-opioid analgesic drugs and measures such as nerve blocks, has gained widespread recognition to provide perioperative analgesia. The analgesic goals in ASCs include cost-effectiveness, efficiency, patient satisfaction, minimizing drug side effects, and anesthetic complications. This chapter will discuss these analgesic goals and their rationales.