Postoperative pain has many components, including hyperalgesia in the area of the incision, local ischaemia in the wound and central neuronal sensitisation in addition to the inflammatory response to surgery. Many surveys show that the treatment of postoperative pain is often inadequate. Postoperative pain is an anticipated and temporary (2 to 5 days) increase in background pain that occurs following burn excision and/or grafting procedures and is most commonly the result of increased pain from newly created wounds at the skin graft harvesting site. Pharmacologic management of postoperative pain includes a temporary increase in background opioid analgesic support, but can also include the use of continuous regional block techniques in the immediate postoperative period.