Obviously, with this form of analgesia, the patient experiences constant "peaks and valleys of pain" and may even be more drowsy than desired. When pain is not adequately controlled, patients may not be able to perform the activities needed to get better, such as walking, eating, and doing deep breathing exercises. Thus, pain can interfere with patients' ability to get out of the hospital on a timely basis. However, adequate pain control may help avoid some problems, such as pneumonia and blood clots

In the last several years, there have been a great number of changes occurring in the field of postoperative pain management. It is now widely accepted that patients seem to do better if their pain is under reasonable control. Methods, such as Intravenous Patient Controlled Analgesia (IV PCA), Epidural Analgesia and various regional nerve blocks allow the patient to have some control over the pain, rather than having to wait for the nurse to bring the injection.