Good Practice in Postoperative and Procedural Pain: Neurosurgery

It is designed to provide evidence-based information on the assessment of pain and the efficacy of pain management strategies. The app includes advice on the assessment of pain including evidence levels and grade of recommendation specific to Neurosurgery. Neurosurgical procedures in children include drainage of hydrocephalus and insertion or replacement of an extra cranial shunt, craniotomy, craniofacial surgery and surgery for intracranial aneurism or other vascular malformation. There has been little investigation of analgesic requirements or analgesia for this group of patients, but it is frequently asserted that severe postoperative pain is not a prominent feature even following major neurosurgical interventions. Postoperatively, many neurosurgical patients are admitted to ICU or high dependency areas for monitoring; opioid analgesia must be used judiciously as excessive sedation may mask signs of acute changes in intracranial pressure or interfere with the patient’s ability to co-operate with neurological assessments. As the risk of postoperative bleeding is relatively high and potentially disastrous following some procedures, NSAID’s are sometimes withheld during the first 24hours. A GoCanvas account can be specified as being HIPAA compliant.