Preemptive analgesia is a treatment that is initiated before and is operational during the tissue injury (e.g., a surgical procedure), in order to reduce the physiological consequences of nociceptive transmission provoked by the procedure. The hypothesis behind this is that the transmission of noxious afferent input from the periphery to the spinal cord during the induction of a tissue injury induces a prolonged state of central sensitization, which amplifies subsequent input from the injury and leads to heightened pain. By interrupting the transmission of noxious inputs to the spinal cord during the injury, a preemptive approach is suggested to prevent the establishment of central sensitization, resulting in reduced pain intensity and lower analgesic requirements, even after the analgesic effects of the (preemptive) agents have worn off.
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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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(2013). Preemptive Analgesia. In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_201746
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_201746
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-28752-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-28753-4
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