Kelly Byrne, MBChB, FANZCA, Clare Smith, MBChB, FANZCA

Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1053/j.jvca.2018.08.008

In 1995 Sabaratnam Sabanathan posed the question “Has post-operative pain been eradicated?”¹ This was in relation to an article that he published in the Annals of the Royal College of Surgery, which described an analgesic package for thoracotomies consisting of a preoperative paravertebral block, a surgically placed extrapleural catheter with postoperative local anesthetic infusion, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, and opiates. Unfortunately, as it was in 1995, the answer to this question in 2018 is still “no.”