Recovery from anesthesia is a source of great stress for patients. Postanesthesia recovery must occur comfortably and uneventfully in a controlled environment. However, as it usually starts in the operating room, patients are brought to the recovery unit with airway blockage, shiver, agitation, delirium, pain, nausea, vomiting, hypothermia, and autonomic instability risks. Most surgical morbidities and mortalities happen in the postoperative period. Among patients who have had surgery, the early and late postoperative periods constitute one of the most critical stages. All of these facts emphasize the importance of postoperative recovery and postoperative care. Close and adequate care is thus necessary in this period so as to minimize postoperative complications. Postoperative pain is one of the most important problems in the postoperative period. Postoperative pain, with nociceptive, inflammatory, and neuropathic components, begins with surgical trauma and reduces as the tissue heals. Untreated pain caused by surgical trauma produces very important physiopathologic changes in children and adults. Effective treatment of postoperative pain decreases surgical mortality and morbidity rates and has been shown to promote quicker healing.

Untreated postoperative pain, especially in thoracic and upper abdominal surgeries, decreases respiratory motion and the cough reflex and prevents expectoration of secretions. The risk of atelectasis and postoperative pulmonary complications increases. Surgery increases plasma release of β-endorphins, adrenocorticotropin, vasopressin, catecholamine, growth hormone, glucagon, cortisol aldosterone, and other corticosteroids, while depressing insulin release. This results in exhaustion of carbohydrate and fat stores, while increasing the levels of lactate, pyruvate, ketone bodies, glycerol, and free fatty acids. Plasma amino acids, nitrogen excretion, and 3-methylhistidine/creatinine level increases are related to protein destruction. Severe pain results in sympathetic stimulation of catecholamine release and systemic increases in vascular resistance, heart rate, and myocardial oxygen consumption. Inadequate treatment of pain can result in arrhythmia. Increased sympathetic activity can reduce blood flow to the extremities and increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis. Catecholamine release linked to pain reduces gastrointestinal motility and splanchnic blood flow.

In conjunction with the continuous development of new technology and the availability of new drugs for anesthesia, great improvements have occurred in postoperative patient care in the last decade. We solicit high quality, original research articles and review articles focused on acute postoperative pain control. We invite authors to submit original research and review articles about postoperative pain.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Postoperative pain control
• Impact of analgesia type on patient outcome
• Impact of anesthesia type on patient pain and outcome
• Outcomes of anesthesia types and postoperative pain control
• Patient-controlled analgesia
• Complications of analgesia in the postoperative period
• Anesthesia and neuroendocrine stress responses in the postoperative period
• Novel methods of assessing postoperative pain
• Novel methods of analgesia administration at PACU
• Novel drugs and postoperative pain
• Novel peripheral nerve blocks and truncal blocks and postoperative pain
• Postoperative pain care in surgical home
• Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) and postoperative pain
• Postoperative analgesia in critical care patients