Abstract
Spinal analgesia induced by intrathecal and epidural administration of analgesics possesses the advantage of producing maximum analgesic effects and reducing the frequencies of the side effects by systemic absorption of the analgesics. Spinal analgesia has thus been used in various types of pain states including the postoperative pain state. Because it is essential to use a suitable animal model and research design for applying new strategies of relieving postoperative pain in a clinical setting, I will discuss the mechanisms of postoperative pain from findings based on a rat model of incision-induced pain.
