An update on PROSPECT

The PROSPECT initiative provides healthcare professionals with practical recommendations for postoperative pain management in common surgical procedures. The aim is to promote the use of effective, procedure-specific analgesia to enable optimal patient recovery after surgery.
PROSPECT recommendations are formulated by an expert working group of anaesthesiologists and surgeons, after careful evaluation of:

• Procedure-specific evidence, based on a systematic review of the literature
• The risks and benefits of each 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 evidence, recommendations and methodology can be found on the PROSPECT website (esraeurope.org/prospect), together with links to all PROSPECT publications (most are open access). Summary recommendations are available in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Turkish.
Since November 2020, seven new PROSPECT reviews have been published. These most recent PROSPECT recommendations are:*

• Total Hip Arthroplasty 2019 (update)
• Caesarean Section 2020
• Complex Spine Surgery 2020
• Laminectomy 2020
• Open Liver Resection 2019
• Inguinal hernia repair surgery 2019 (update)
• Tonsillectomy 2019

*Years reflect the literature search date.

New PROSPECT reviews and updates are underway. The next procedure recommendations that are nearly finalised include sternotomy, hip fracture, total knee arthroplasty (update), video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, laparoscopic colectomy, open abdominal hysterectomy and prostatectomy.

PROSPECT is supported by an unrestricted grant from the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy (ESRA) as an independent Working Group of the society.

Don’t miss the PROSPECT guidelines session at the ESRA virtual congress!
10 September at 10:00–11:00
Narinder Rawal will chair a panel discussion with authors of the latest recommendations on pain management for hallux valgus surgery (Eric Albrecht), oncological breast surgery (Marc Van de Velde) and total hip arthroplasty (Axel Sauter).
The session will be live, so please join us and get involved in the discussions!