Opioid Free General Anesthesia in Clinical Practice – a Review Article

Abstract

Currently, enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols are multimodal perioperative care pathways with the goal to achieve early patient recovery after surgery with minimal postoperative complications. According to studies, opioid free general anesthesia has many perioperative benefits and should be part of the ERAS protocols in specific surgical and patient indications. Opioid free general anesthesia is a multimodal balanced technique that is based on the concept that opioids are not used preoperatively or intraoperatively until the patient has aroused. The basic concept of opioid free general anesthesia is intravenous administration of several nonopioid drugs that operate at different pharmacological sites blocking surgical stress and sympathetic activation response. Moreover, current studies have shown that opioid free anesthesia is a technique which satisfactorily controls postoperative pain as the fifth vital sign, and has minimal side effects and better patient recovery with the same surgical conditions as general multimodal balanced anesthesia. However, further research is needed.

Keywords

• Acute pain
• Multimodal anesthesia
• Opioid free anesthesia
• Perioperative period