The role of regional anaesthesia in the management of acute pain

Regional anaesthesia is a powerful tool in the management of acute pain and offers additional advantages, although there are caveats. For certain sub-groups of patients the advantages are greater than others; either in avoidance of opioid-based analgesic regimes, or benefits related to the direct use of local anaesthetics. The future role of regional anaesthesia in the context of acute pain is expanding, and key directions are focussing its role as part of a multimodal enhanced recovery package, and also the role of local anaesthetics in perioperative cancer care.