Postoperative pain management in infants and children: new developments

The elimination of pain should be of outstanding importance for all people caring for children. A concept of balanced analgesia including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioids and local anaesthetics is widely accepted. This review focuses on extending analgesia beyond the immediate postoperative period, the understanding of pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic interactions of paracetamol, the side-effects of opioids during patient-controlled administration, and the position of ropivacaine in paediatric pain management. For the majority of clinical situations, however, we already have established and functioning concepts for analgesia; we only have to use them!