Principles of Burn Pain Management

Abstract

This article describes pathophysiology of burn injury-related pain and the basic principles of burn pain management. The focus is on concepts of perioperative and periprocedural pain management with extensive discussion of opioid-based analgesia, including patient-controlled analgesia, challenges of effective opioid therapy in opioid-tolerant patients, and opioid-induced hyperalgesia. The principles of multimodal pain management are discussed, including the importance of psychological counseling, perioperative interventional pain procedures, and alternative pain management options. A brief synopsis of the principles of outpatient pain management is provided.

Keywords: Adjuvant pain medications; Alternative pain therapy; Multimodal analgesia; Opioid tolerance; Opioid-based analgesia; Opioid-induced hyperalgesia; Pain burn pathophysiology; Patient-controlled analgesia.