Postoperative pain: Meeting new expectations
http://www.ccjm.org/uploads/media/media_a835b96_441.pdf

One of the most common questions patients ask when they hear that they need surgery is, “How much pain will I have, and how will you manage it?” 

Pain is a common human experience that provokes both fear and anxiety, which in some cases can last a lifetime.
 The medical community has been slow to meet the challenge of managing it. 
The US National Institutes of Health states that more than 80% of patients suffer postoperative pain, with fewer than 50% receiving adequate relief.
 Patients have spoken out loudly through the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores, demonstrating that the issue of inadequate postoperative pain management is real. 

 Clearly, as the push to tie reimbursement to patient satisfaction grows, clinicians have both a moral and a financial imperative to address postoperative pain. 
The management of acute postoperative pain is evolving, and recognition of acute pain has progressed from considering it an afterthought or nuisance to realizing that improperly or inadequately treated postoperative pain can have a number of adverse effects, including debilitating chronic pain syndromes. 

Inadequately treated pain is also contributing to the calamitous rise in addiction to illegal substances and prescription medications.3 The time has come to take responsibility and meet the expectations of our patients.