Pain Management in the Head and Neck Patient

Uncontrolled pain is a malfeasant force that broadly affects patient well-being and clinical outcomes, yet uncontrolled pain remains a common problem across clinical medicine, especially in perioperative settings and in cancer care. Increasing concern for potential adverse effects from opioid analgesics, including tolerance, induced hyperalgesia, respiratory depression, and misuse/abuse, necessitates optimizing nonopioid management strategies to improve pain control while intentionally limiting opioid use as reasonably possible. Control of acute perioperative pain is a major determinant of patient satisfaction but also impacts treatment compliance and outcomes. Implementation and optimization of multimodal care plans to Enhance Recover After Surgery (ERAS) can broadly improve patient outcomes including pain management. Although the routine use of systemic analgesics plays an important role in chronic noncancer pain management and is the cornerstone of cancer pain management, broad multidisciplinary care is frequently needed to effect good symptom control while appropriately limiting, or even avoiding, chronic opioid use. Fortunately, most human suffering from pain can be substantially alleviated through careful planning to anticipate pain and appropriately adjusting care plans in clinical settings where pain is likely to occur, routinely evaluating patients for pain in all clinical settings, and consistently applying available pain therapies.