Regional anesthesia for preemptive analgesia

Anesthesiologists play an important role in preemptive analgesia. The anesthetic technique, including his choice of anesthetic agents and drugs, shall have a bearing on how effective pain management is during this peri-operative period. Regional anesthesia (RA), either used alone or in combi-nation with general anesthesia, can be an effective way of applying the concept of preemptive analgesia. Key factors for the efficacy of RA for preemptive analgesia are the degree and duration of neural block and timing of its application. With RA, one is able to alter pain perception by halting the processes of transduction and transmission of the painful stimuli or influence pain modulation. The latter is best accomplished by using local anesthetic agents in combination with opioids administered epidurally or intrathecally.