Preventive analgesia is a practice aimed at reducing short- and long-term post-surgery pain.
Reducing activity in the body's pain signaling system by the use of analgesics before, during and immediately after surgery is believed to reduce subsequent sensitization, and consequently the intensity of post-surgery pain.
The types of nerve activity targeted in preventive analgesia include pre-surgery pain, all pain-system activity caused during surgery, and pain produced post-surgery by damage and inflammation.
[1] A person's assessment of pain intensity from standard experimental stimuli prior to surgery is correlated with the intensity of their post-surgery pain.
[1] Different medications such as pregabalin, acetaminophen, naproxen, and dextromethorphan have been tried in studies about preemptive analgesia.