nonpharmacologic analgesic technologies

Collectively, these technologies support a mechanism-based, systems-level approach to pain modulation.

Perioperative relevance and the strength of available human evidence vary by nonpharmacologic analgesic modality.

Conventional opioid-centered analgesic strategies are limited by narrow therapeutic windows, systemic toxicity, tolerance, opioid-induced hyperalgesia, and poor efficacy in neuroimmune-driven pain states.

Emerging nonpharmacologic analgesic technologies modulate pain pathways through biophysical rather than receptor-ligand mechanisms.

Perioperative pain remains a major clinical challenge, and many surgical patients experience inadequate analgesia with progression to chronic postsurgical pain.

Peripheral sensitization, spinal dorsal horn plasticity, glial and neuroimmune activation, and supraspinal network dysfunction are described as targets for device-based pain interventions.

Many of these technologies are established in chronic pain management, and chronic pain evidence is discussed as informing perioperative translation within opioid-sparing multimodal anesthesia care.