Loss or reduction of pain sensation. Analgesia differs from anaesthesia in that sensitivity to touch is still preserved. (See also analgesic drugs.)
Pain reduction or relief.
n. reduced sensibility to pain, without loss of consciousness and without the sense of touch necessarily being affected. The condition may arise accidentally, if nerves are diseased or damaged, or be induced deliberately by the use of pain-killing drugs (see analgesic). Strictly speaking, local *anaesthesia should be called local analgesia. See also relative analgesia.
A technique whereby a patient can deliver an analgesic substance (see ANALGESICS) in amounts related to the extent of the PAIN that he or she is suffering. For example, to combat post-operative pain, some hospitals use devices which allow patients to give themselves small intravenous amounts of opiates when they are needed. Pain is more e?ectively controlled if it is not allowed to reach a high level, a situation which tends to happen when patients receive analgesics only on ward drug rounds or when they ask the nursing sta? for them.... patient-controlled analgesia
a sedation technique, used particularly in dentistry, in which a mixture of *nitrous oxide and oxygen (‘gas and air’) is given. The patient remains conscious throughout; the technique is used to supplement local anaesthesia for nervous patients.... relative analgesia
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