OPIOID FREE ANESTHESIA WITH INTRAOPERATIVE INTRAVENOUS LIDOCAINE AS PART OF A MULTIMODAL ANESTHETIC APPROACH

Abstract

In the United States 99% of patients receive opioids as a primary method of pain control both perioperative and postoperatively (Hah, Bateman, Ratliff, Curtin & Sun, 2017). The need for alternative methods to treat patients in pain places increased pressure on CRNAs to explore alternative methods. In 2016, the CDC released guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain; however, the focus on perioperative prescribing has gone without being addressed. Intravenous Lidocaine infusion (IVLI) as part of a multimodal analgesic (MMA) approach has shown favorable results in the reduction of opioid consumption in the postoperative phase of care (Mujukian et al., 2019). IVLI with MMA shows promise because this technique offers an alternative to the current practice that relies heavily on opioids as the primary method for treating patient’s pain intraoperatively.