Introduction:

the management of pain together with the reduction of preoperative stress and early rehabilitation, in turn reduce postoperative morbidity and mortality and establish the basis of the current management of the surgical patient.

Objective:

to review the most recent pain management related approaches in the postoperative period of joint surgeries.

Development:

the surgery of large joints, such as total knee arthroplasty, is related to postoperative pain that is described as intense, since up to 50 % of cases require the use of opioids or other analgesic drugs to control it effectively.

Conclusions:

although the postoperative analgesic effectiveness of certain drugs, added to local anesthetics in spinal anesthesia, has been investigated in joint replacements, the true role of adjuvant drugs and non-pharmacological therapies has not yet been determined, and a practical guide focusing on the clinical evidence for each process, which circumscribes post-surgical rehabilitation, is necessary in the future.

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