**5. Conclusions**

The role of regional anesthesia in peri-operative care and acute pain management is more important now than it has ever been. Postoperative pain management continues to be a challenge for the health professional, due to the combination of factors that produce it. If not treated correctly, postoperative pain may become chronic which can cause functional limitation and psychological distress to patients. We should identify the risk factors in a patient undergoing surgery and institute appropriate preventive measures.

When seeking satisfaction in the patient, it must be understood that suboptimal pain management may be due to the lack of an updated and multidisciplinary approach. The use of regional techniques in the pre, intra and postoperative period, based on the recommendations of the multimodal therapy guidelines, implemented according to the setting and the availability of the health center, hence it can make a difference in terms of acute postoperative pain and long-term preventable consequences.

The ability of regional anesthesia to target many areas of the surgically induced pain pathways makes it a powerful tool in reducing neural activation from surgical injury, making it the centerpiece of a well-rounded multimodal approach. Several ongoing studies addressing innovative blocks will likely continue to inform preventative treatment options. Successful approaches to decrease chronic postoperative pain incidence should start at the time of pre-operative planning and extend into the recovery period.

Adoption of ultrasound guidance as the gold standard has been key to this; recently new techniques have been developed. Fascial plane blocks have been an important step in increasing the reach of regional anesthesia, although more research is needed to clarify their role in peri-operative pain management, reason why is particularly important to continue investing into regional anesthesia education. Advances in technology, technique development and pharmacology over the last decade have significantly improved efficacy and safety of regional anesthesia.
