Rebound pain after peripheral nerve blocks

Abstract

Rebound pain is a severe post-surgical pain which occurs after the resolution of peripheral nerve blocks. Current literature suggests that rebound pain affects around 50% of those receiving a peripheral nerve block. Possible interventions constitute patient education, bridging analgesia from the resolution of the nerve block, multimodal analgesic regimes, block adjuvants, or continuous pain catheters. Factors such as low age, female gender, bone surgery, and absence of IV dexamethasone are likely to be associated with rebound pain, as argued in this review.