Acute pain services

An interdisciplinary acute pain service (APS) team seems the most attractive clinical organization model for postoperative pain management (POPM) to fulfil the intentions of pain management guidelines in practice. The specific knowledge of anaesthesiologists in the use of drugs and techniques for pain alleviation is of specific importance. Therefore, the anaesthetist is usually the team leader and works together with nurses in the postanaesthesia care unit (PACU), acute pain nurses (APN) and surgical ward nurses. A nurse-based anaesthesiologist supervised type of APS seems in several respects to be a suitable model for POPM in clinical practice.