Acute pain in critical care oncologic patients

Acute pain is a common symptom in the ICU, which can hinder progress of a patient. If this pain is not treated adequately, there is increased risk of developing chronic pain. Acute pain in the oncologic patient population is multifactorial. Understanding the various types of pain and their etiology helps us select the appropriate modality of pain management. In this era of opioid crisis, finding non-opioid alternatives to control acute pain is very important. In this chapter, we discuss in detail the types of pain, their symptomcharacteristics and type of opioid and non-opioid treatment options, doses, mechanism of action, and side effects. Another important treatment arm highlighted here is the non-pharmacologic options for pain control. To assess success of these methods, it is probably prudent to move away from pain scores only but also keep in mind the patient's pain goal and even more importantly the patient's functional recovery.