4^th International Anesthesia and Pain Medicine Conference

For decades opioids were considered the most powerful analgesic agents for balanced anesthesia despite its side effect. Recently, reducing opioid use became influential in the opioid epidemics. Anesthesiologists and surgeons together induce addiction after surgery as evidenced in a Canadian cohort study. Clarke et al. studied more than 40,000 major surgery, patients measured that 50% of opioid-naïve patients leave a hospital with an opioid prescription and 3.1% continue its use after 3 months. This result is supported by Brummett etal., who reported rates of new persistent postoperative opioid use ranging from 5.9% to 6.5%, suggesting that new persistent opioid use after surgery is common. These findings raised the concerns of perioperative opioid use. For enhanced recovery after surgery, it is recommended to reduce the use of postoperative opioids. Among anesthetists, there is a growing movement towards minimizing or avoiding opioids. Opioid-Free Anesthesia (OFA) contributes to a smooth and rapid recovery with less pain. Moreover, OFA avoids tolerance and hyperalgesia development and other side effects.