EAU guidelines on pain management

Abstract

Pain is the most common symptom of any illness; the physician's therapeutic task is twofold: to discover and treat the cause of pain and the pain itself, whether or not the underlying cause is treatable, to provide relief and reduce the suffering caused by pain. Although we use the term of pain to define all sensations that hurt or are unpleasant, actually two quite different kinds of pain exist. The first (nociceptive) is associated with tissue damage or inflammation, the second (neuropathic) results from a lesion to the peripheral or central nervous systems. Pain can also be divided in acute and chronic. Caregivers are to face pain in two main settings: after surgery and in cancer patients. These tasks require a multidisciplinary team, able to properly assess and treat pain. Postoperative pain is to be treated early and aggressively. Several drug options are available, to be tailored on the surgical procedure and the patient. Pain in cancer patients consists of different aspects: it can be caused by the cancer itself or may be secondary to muscular spasm or cancer treatments. The management involves mainly pharmacotherapy, but also primary treatments as surgery, radiochemotherapy or even antibiotics can provide an adequate relief. Analgesics are to be employed according to an ascending scale, but other options can be combined to improve the outcome when a satisfactory balance between relief and side effects is not achieved; they include invasive techniques, physical and psychological therapy. The mainstay of pain management entails a interdisciplinary cooperation; it requires a full knowledge of the methods of evaluation and treatment of this condition.