Multimodal Analgesia in Spine Surgery: An Umbrella Review

Abstract

Objective: In recent years, there has been a growing interest regarding the implementation of multimodal analgesia as an important component of the ideal perioperative patient management. The aim of the current umbrella review was to establish the role of multimodal analgesia in patients undergoing spine surgery during the immediate postoperative period.

Methods: A systematic review of the pertinent literature was performed. The evaluation was based on a multitude of primary endpoints including the postoperative requirements for patient-controlled analgesia, pain intensity, back-related disability, overall functionality, patient satisfaction, complications, length of hospitalization, and costs.

Results: The results were summarized using a meta-analysis in the presence of quantitative data or in a narrative review, otherwise. There was a large body of high-quality evidence supporting that the implementation of multimodal analgesia improves patient outcome in terms of the intensity of postoperative pain, the requirements for postoperative opioid analgesia, and the opioid-associated side effects. Similarly, limited high-quality evidence supported that multimodal analgesia improved patients' functionality and satisfaction while decreasing the length of hospitalization and overall costs of surgery. However, the results were inconclusive as far as the disability was concerned.

Conclusions: Multimodal analgesia seems to have an essential role for the optimal management of patients undergoing spine surgery. Future research is required to optimize the multimodal analgesia protocols in this group of patients.

Keywords: Adult; Analgesia/methods; Humans; Pain; Pain management; Postoperative; Spine/surgery.