First Posted June 19, 2000 Last updated October 24, 2012

Post Operative Pain

This is an actual patient in the recovery room, minutes after surgery on her hand. She is smiling because she doesn't hurt, and she doesn't hurt because of my post-operative pain program.

I am "allergic" to pain, and I presume that you are, too! Your post-operative pain is important to me. Please read on!

If you ask patients what they want from their surgery, I think that you will find that the answers almost always are these, and in this order:

I want the surgery to be successful
I don't want any complications
I don't want it to hurt

Is this about what you would say? I think it is exactly what I would want from my own surgery. Doctors spend a lot of time making sure the surgery is successful, and they spend a lot of time trying to avoid complications. But they tend to ignore the patient's pain.

I don't think that is what patients really want. It is certainly not what I want from my own physicians. So I have been studying post-operative pain since 1989. I joined the International Association for the Study of Pain (a professional organization of doctors, principally anesthesiologists, and PhD's), bought and studied books on pain, subscribed to a pain journals, attended pain lectures, and talked to pain specialists.

Based on this work, I designed a post-operative pain program for my hand surgery patients, and when I had surgery on my own hands (carpal tunnel releases, both hands, same day), this is what I used for my own pain. I have performed a three-year, prospective study of the success of my post-operative pain program on my own patients and presented this study at the International Association for the Study of Pain, and at regional surgery meetings. The response from specialists in pain management has been very positive.

Dr. Nelson's Pain Study

The goal of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of our current post-operative pain protocol by measuring patients' post-operative pain. It is very difficult to measure pain, since it is essentially a subjective perception, a private experience that you can try to explain to someone else but you never fully can. It is your private perception. Real, but subjective. I spent some time trying to figure out how to measure post-operative pain: visual analog scales, numbering scales, etc.

The method of the study that I finally decided upon was to allow the patients unlimited access to narcotic pain medication and just count the number of pills taken in the post-operative period (10 days) before they saw me in the office. This method (measuring the amount of narcotic pain medication) has been used in many studies of other parts of the body and is widely supported as an effective way of measuring pain. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Marin General Hospital. I used the pain management protocol listed below, with slight changes over the course of the study (eg, substitute a COX-2 inhibitor for Motrin, call the patient the day after surgery rather than the evening of surgery).

The results of the study: We collected data for over three years (the study started December 10, 1998). At the three year mark, the average number of Vicodin or Tylenol #3 taken, for all patients, was only a total of 2.26 pills within the first 10 days after surgery, and 46% of the patients did not take any narcotic medication, only antiinflammatory medication such as Celebrex plus Tylenol (acetamenophen). That's all! I think, and my surgery colleagues agree, that this is a rather dramatically low number. (We do not have a control group, but many surgeons are giving their patients 30 or 40 narcotic pills for the same kinds of surgeries.) For surgeries involving only soft tissue (like carpal tunnels, trigger fingers, Dupuytren's releases), the average was only 1.1 Vicodin pills in the first 10 days after surgery; the average for bone procedures (like fixing fractures, correcting malunions, etc) is 6.1 Vocodin pills. I have slightly modified my techniques since the 1998-2000 study (improved post-operative injection of long-acting pain medicine, substitute long-acting Tylenol Arthritis for short-acting regular or extra strength Tylenol), and currently 72% of the patients find that they have so little pain that they do not want to take any Vicodin, only the Tylenol and Celebrex. We estimate that the average total number of Vicodin taken is now less than 1 pill in ten days.

How can I make my surgeries hurt so little?

Here's the secret: listen to your patients, and then act on what you hear. That's all there is to it.

By listening to my patients, I have developed a 8 stage approach to pain:

Dr. Nelson's Post-Operative Pain Management Protocol

I discuss the issue of pain before surgery (if patients know that I care about their pain, they are much less apprehensive)
The patients take Celebrex 400mg or similar antiinflammatory medication and (please note that this is "and", not "or") one Tylenol Arthritis (long-acting acetamenophen), also labelled as Tylenol (acetamenophen) 8-Hour, on the morning of the day of surgery, prior to coming into the hospital or surgery center for their surgery.
I place a fast-acting numbing shot into the area of the incision, prior to making the incision. The name of this medicine is Lidocaine, and this way the patient's body never feels the incision and surgery, and they can be given less anesthesia, so they wake up faster and feeling less drowsy.
I try to perform the surgery in the least painful manner (we call this "careful tissue handling").
I place a long-acting numbing shot into the area of surgery after the surgical procedure. The name of the medicine is 0.5% Marcaine with epinephrine. This way, the patient can wake up in the recovery room and not feel the surgery at all, in most cases, and they take less pain medicine in the recovery room and go home faster and are less drowsy.
After surgery, the patients take Celebrex 200 mg or similar antiinflammatory medication, once a day, whether they are hurting or not. This keeps a baseline of antiinflammatory medication in their blood, heading off pain before it occurs. They also take Tylenol (acetamenophen) Arthritis, with a maximum dose of 4000 mg per day. This continues for three or so days, until they feel they do not need it. (Any brand of acetamenophen is OK as long as it is the long-acting version; "extra-strength" acetamenophen is not the same thing and is not the right drug.)
I call almost all of my patients the morning after surgery, to see how they are doing and to make sure they are following directions (this heads off misunderstandings and most problems)
I ask the patient about their pain when they come back to the office and record this in their chart. This allows me to learn how to do it better.

Preventative Regimen Against Pain

Celebrex is a non-steroid, non-narcotic, non-addicting antiinflammatory medication that significantly reduces swelling, inflammation, and pain. It is a member of a special class of medications called COX-2 inhibitors, that center in on your pain but have much less effect on the function of your stomach lining, kidneys, and other normal body processes. It does not interfere with blood clotting or wound healing, and can be taken with or without food, before and after surgery. It has been shown to be effective in controlling post-operative pain in studies of dental surgery and knee surgery. Taking this medication greatly decreases the need for addictive, narcotic pain medication after surgery; in fact, in the study I did that I mentioned above, 46% of the patients did not need any narcotic pain medication after surgery.

It has been shown that caffeine can interfere with the action of acetaminophen function, so you should try to avoid any caffeine for a day or so.

Following the program below will greatly decrease
your post-operative pain.

Celebrex 400 mg (two pills, if they are the 200 mg pills) and Tylenol Arthritis 650 mg (one pill), on the morning of surgery, with just a sip of water, prior to leaving for the hospital. (You should also take your usual medications. Don't worry if you have been told "Don't eat or drink anything after midnight," because medications are an exception. Take your usual medication. (This would be a great time to write the name of the surgery on the finger or hand were we are to do the surgery. See “wrong site surgery".)
Celebrex 200 mg, in the mornings, for about 2-5 days after the surgery; you can stop two days after surgery if your hand does not hurt. (Note: the usual dose of Celebrex for arthritis is 200 mg/day.)
Tylenol Arthritis (or any brand of acetamenophen 8-hour), every eight hours, with a maximum dose of 4000 mg per day, for about 3-5 days after the surgery. Tylenol Arthritis plus Celebrex is a case of 1+1=3, not 2. That is, they work together as a team to make each other stronger: 2 Celebrex or 2 Tylenol is not as strong as 1 Celebrex plus 1 Tylenol (the medical term for this is “synergistic”). (Note that the numbers in this equation are just symbolic: the actual number of pills to take is listed above.) The maximum amount of Tylenol is 4000 mg per day, which is the same as 6 of the 650 mg pills. Remember, don’t subsititute any other medication for the Tylenol: don’t take Motrin, aspirin, or any other over the counter medication. It must be Tylenol (or any brand of acetamenophen) for it to work as a team. (You can substitue Motrin or any other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory for the Celebrex, but not for the Tylenol.) Remember as well that Tylenol Arthritis is taken every 8 hours, the Celebrex is once a day.

I have found that this program is very effective, keeps the patient informed and in control, and provides feedback to me so that I can continue to improve. If you are considering surgery, please discuss this program with me. I have asked several patients to write about their pain and their post-operative experiences.

Click here if you would like to read what some patients have written about their experience having surgery.