Why Prospect?

Provision of effective analgesia is essential for optimal patient recovery after surgery (Joshi et al 2014; Lee et al 2018). However, postoperative pain continues to be poorly managed in clinical practice (Gan et al 2014; Gerbershagen et al 2013).

To enable provision of appropriate and adequate analgesia, procedure-specific recommendations for postoperative pain management are needed. Different surgical procedures require specific approaches to pain management due to:

• Diverse pain characteristics, including the nature (somatic or visceral), site, intensity and duration of pain
• Differing consequences of inadequate or inappropriate pain relief
• Varied requirements of procedure-specific peri-operative care pathways that emphasise early mobilisation to enable enhanced recovery after surgery.

The PROSPECT (PROcedure-SPECific postoperative pain managemenT) initiative aims to provide healthcare professionals with practical recommendations for pain management in common but potentially painful operations.

The recommendations for each intervention are formulated after careful evaluation of:

• Procedure-specific evidence, based on a systematic review of the literature
• The risks and benefits of the intervention in the specific surgical setting
• Use of the intervention in the context of multimodal, non-opioid analgesic strategies and modern peri-operative care pathways.

The PROSPECT website offers:

• Easily accessible, practical and pragmatic advice on pain management throughout the peri-operative period
• Evidence-based arguments for and against the use of analgesic interventions in specific surgical procedures
• Translations of the summary recommendations in six languages.