Published online Sep 28, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i21.2331
Peer-review started: April 16, 2015
First decision: May 18, 2015
Revised: May 26, 2015
Accepted: September 2, 2015
Article in press: September 7, 2015
Published online: September 28, 2015
Processing time: 162 Days and 6.2 Hours
Core tip: Based on several papers published over the last two decades, there is a general assumption that pain following liver transplantation (LT) is less intense than pain following other major abdominal procedures and that the postoperative opioid consumption is lower than for other hepatobiliary procedures. There is also an assumption that patient-controlled opioid analgesia is the only mode of postoperative analgesia for this group of patients. In this paper, we challenged that opinion and addressed the specificity of postoperative pain intensity and treatment in LT patients. We also explored all options in pain control, in addition to patient-controlled analgesia, including epidural analgesia, transversus abdominis plane block and wound catheter infiltration.