The Role of Postoperative Analgesia on Outcomes in Colorectal Surgery

High-quality analgesia has become an important goal in current colorectal practice given its impact on operative morbidity and mortality, timeliness of postsurgical recovery, and patient satisfaction. Despite an abundance of anesthetic agents and techniques, clinical evidence that surgical outcomes are tightly associated with optimal analgesia, and a pursuit of accelerating postoperative recovery, comprehensive guidelines about adequate perioperative analgesia have not been implemented in today’s surgical practice. In this article we provide an overview of various analgesia options that can lead to improved postoperative pain control as related to the practice of colon and rectal surgery and the outcomes that they reflect.