Anesthesia without opioids

Opium was the first opioids with sedative and analgesic effects, so was readily adopted by the surgical doctors to be used during surgeries. Later on its natural alkaloid, morphine, was extensively used, till synthetic alkaloids were introduced in the clinical practice. Now many non-narcotic analgesic drugs have been synthesized and proven to be devoid of serious side effects, commonly associated with the opioid use. There have been some staunch advocates of non-narcotic based anesthesia, who claim that the side effects of the opioids outweigh their benefits in the anesthesia. This editorial throws some light on the current and the future trends in analgesic use in anesthesia.