A Closer Look at the Analgesic Regimen After Rhinoplasty—Reply

In Reply We thank Kendall and Castro-Alves for taking the time to read and critically analyze our article. Their commentary was very insightful and thought provoking. First, to directly answer their inquiries, we did not use a consistent standardized intraoperative or perioperative pain regimen, although that would have been desirable. In large medical center and academic medical center hospitals, and especially now with large anesthesia groups, the ability to have the same anesthesia team even throughout a single case is difficult because different anesthesiologists and certified registered nurse anesthetists continually come in and out of the operating room to spell one another for breaks and leave at shift changes so that the person who started the anesthesia portion is often not the same as who ends the case and extubates the patient. We agree that pain management should be discussed and coordinated with the anesthesiology team, and this should be a proactive venture that is highly dependent on the ability of local anesthesia to quell the need for intravenous medications during the case.