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Multimodal Pain Management

Pain Control After Hip and Knee Replacement

Multimodal Pain Management and its Impact on Rapid Rehabilitation

Pain control after joint replacement is among the top concerns of patients and has become the ‘‘fifth vital sign’’ in the view of the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Hospitals.

The consequences of severe postoperative pain are prolonged hospital stays, increased hospital readmissions, and increased narcotic use. Narcotics cause postoperative nausea, respiratory suppression, urinary retention, and a host of other problems that lead to overall low patient satisfaction and potentially greater cost.

Multimodal pain management focuses on the use of non-narcotic pain medications, preemptive analgesics, computer navigation, minimally invasive surgical techniques, Cryo-therapy and Continuous Passive Motion.

Multimodal pain management and minimally invasive surgical techniques decrease the need for narcotics and allow an earlier return to daily activities. These techniques have had a major impact on practice of total hip and knee arthroplasty.