Analgesia is to make the patient feel no pain. Applications of analgesia include protecting patients from pain - both caused by disease and associated with medical procedures. Analgesia can be induced by administering various medications to patients as well as by non-pharmacological methods.

The termanalgesiais derived from two Greek words:an(understood as without) andalgos (translated as pain). As you can easily guess, analgesia consists in abolishing the patient's perception of pain stimuli. This effect is brought about by the use of analgesia in a conscious patient, in the case of unconscious people, after administering analgesics to them, the occurrence of reflex reactions to pain may be abolished. Anesthesia is a broader concept than analgesia, during which the patient ceases to feel various types of other sensory stimuli (in its course, the patient not only feels no pain, but also no temperature or touch). A narrower concept is sedation, generally understood as reducing anxiety and calming the patient's emotions.

Analgesiais used primarily in anaesthesiology and surgical fields of medicine - today it is difficult to imagine that various medical procedures (e.g. surgeries) would run without the use of painkillers pain stimuli. Probably all of us, even those who have never had any surgical procedures, have experienced analgesia in their lives.

Analgesia: types

Patient analgesia can be induced in two ways. It is possible to exert an effect on the central nervous system itself and thus make you not feel any pain stimuli. However, there is also the possibility of a temporary blockade of pain sensation in one specific place within the body. In the first of these cases, drugs known as analgesics are used, preparations used to block the perception of pain in one specific region of the body are in turn called local anesthetics. Drugs used in analgesia can be administered by various routes, most of all they are taken orally, and in the case of various types of anesthesia, they are typically administered intravenously.

AboveIt was mentioned that virtually every patient has experienced analgesia - this conclusion was drawn from the fact that the purpose of taking a variety of painkillers is to induce the analgesia described. The treatment of pain is classically based on the patient taking prescribed medications in specific doses, but such therapy does not always allow the pain to be controlled sufficiently - it is for this reason that pain therapy is still and continues to be improved. These are related not only to the fact that newer and newer drugs are used in analgesia, but also to the fact that newer and more favorable solutions are found - as an example of them, one can give patient-controlled analgesia.

Patient-controlled analgesia

Patient-controlled analgesia means that the chronic pain reliever used by the patient is contained in a large syringe, which is connected to an intravenous contact and to a special control system. A single dose of an analgesic drug is set by the doctor, but the patient - by pressing the appropriate button - decides when it is to be administered to him. Patient-controlled analgesia is mainly used in a hospital setting and is primarily intended to provide the best possible pain relief. This method of analgesia has several significant advantages, among which it is worth mentioning that the time between the occurrence of pain in the patient and administering medications is reduced - he does not have to wait for medical personnel to give them to him. Another benefit of patient-controlled analgesia is that you always get the same prescribed dose of analgesic, and the control systems control that the patient does not exceed the permissible doses of analgesics.

Analgesics, i.e. painkillers, have already been mentioned several times here - however, no name of a specific preparation has been mentioned yet. However, it is definitely worth taking a closer look at drugs used in analgesia, because - interestingly - just as some of them are commonly known, other drugs are typically not suspected that they can be used for pain relief at all.

Analgesia: basic analgesic drugs

There are three groups of basic analgesics - this division is based on the so-called the analgesic ladder. It was designed by the World He alth Organization (WHO) and it unifies how pain management should work for patients.

On the first step of the ladder are the drugs with which it should be startedtherapy - these are paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

The next, second floor of the analgesic ladder is occupied by stronger analgesics, which are drugs belonging to opioids (such as, for example, codeine and tramadol).

On the third and top floor of the analgesic ladder there are stronger opioid painkillers, such as oxycodone, fentanyl or one of the best known opioids - morphine.

An analgesic drug is therefore widely known aspirin, as well as ibuprofen or ketoprofen. However, there are many more preparations that have an analgesic effect.

Analgesia: other analgesics

In analgesia, a wide variety of preparations are used, which belong to groups of drugs other than analgesics. As an example, there are various types of antidepressants (e.g. mianserin, citalopram or amitriptyline), which can alleviate e.g. neuropathic pain. Antiepileptic drugs (e.g. gabapentin or carbamazepine), spasmolytics (e.g. baclofen) or even drugs used in the treatment of osteoporosis (here we are talking about bisphosphonates, used in patients experiencing significant bone pain) are also used in the treatment of pain.

Analgesia: non-pharmacological methods of pain relief

Not only pharmacological methods are used to relieve pain in patients. Examples include neurolysis procedures (consisting in deliberate damage to nerves conducting pain stimuli), percutaneous stimulation of peripheral nerves, but also various physiotherapeutic interactions (e.g. massages, but also thermotherapy can help patients struggling with pain).

About the authorBow. Tomasz NęckiA graduate of medicine at the Medical University of Poznań. An admirer of the Polish sea (most willingly strolling along its shores with headphones in his ears), cats and books. In working with patients, he focuses on always listening to them and spending as much time as they need.

Category:

Neurology