Practice Advisory for Postoperative Pain Management of Cardiac Surgical Patients: Executive Summary. A Report From the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists

Cardiac surgery is associated with significant postoperative pain that can affect patients’ recovery and quality of life. Optimal analgesia after cardiac surgery can be challenging due to patients’ coexisting morbidities and frequently observed adverse effects when opioids are used to treat postoperative pain. In this current era of enhanced recovery and fast track extubation, multimodal analgesia is increasingly being utilized for pain management after cardiac surgery. Regional analgesia is an integral part of multimodal analgesia and has garnered more attention since the development of fascial plane blocks. There is considerable variability among individuals, institutions, and practices in the analgesic approaches used to treat postoperative pain in cardiac surgical patients because of lack of consensus or guidelines. This practice advisory was developed with the overall goal of identifying opportunities for improving postoperative pain relief and pain-related outcomes after cardiac surgery and guiding perioperative providers through the provision of clinically relevant evidence-based recommendations.