The value of pre-emptive analgesia in the treatment of postoperative pain.

Our knowledge and understanding of the physiology of acute pain has improved in recent years. Most of this new information has been gathered from basic science and experimental studies. The recent papers by Wall [40] and Woolf [41] have stimulated much discussion on the potential clinical implications of this knowledge for the management of acute postoperative pain, and the concept of "pre-emptive analgesia" has gained widespread acceptance. This paper is a critical analysis of clinical studies on the effects of pre-emptive analgesia on acute postoperative pain.