Acute Pain brings coverage of this diverse area together in a single comprehensive clinical reference, from the basic mechanisms underlying the development of acute pain, to the various treatments that can be applied to control it in different clinical settings. Much expanded in this second edition, the volume reflects the huge advances that continue to be made in acute pain management.

Part One examines the basic aspects of acute pain and its management, including applied physiology and development neurobiology, the drugs commonly used in therapy, assessment, measurement and history-taking, post-operative pain management and its relationship to outcome, and preventive analgesia.

Part Two reviews the techniques used for the management of acute pain. Methods of drug delivery and non-pharmacological treatments including psychological therapies in adults and children and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation are considered here.

Part Three looks at the many clinical situations in which acute pain can arise, and the methods of treatment that may be suitable in each circumstance, whether the patient is young or old, has pain due to surgery, trauma, medical illness or childbirth, or is undergoing rehabilitation. Issues specific to the management of acute pain in the developing world are also covered here.

Pamela E Macintyre Consultant Anaesthetist; and Director, Acute Pain Service Department of Anaesthesia, Pain Medicine and Hyperbaric Medicine Royal Adelaide Hospital and University of Adelaide Adelaide, Australia

Suellen M Walker Clinical Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, UCL Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK

David J Rowbotham Professor of Anaesthesia and Pain Management; and Head, Clinical Division of Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Management, University of Leicester,