In recent years hospitals have begun to institute special postoperative pain services staffed by anesthesia department personnel. The charter for such services is to provide the best and most appropriate postoperative analgesia for surgical patients, in particular for the increasing numbers of patients who, released from hospital soon after surgery, still require pain relief on an outpatient basis. This review focuses on the relative benefits and risks of the currently available options for postoperative pain relief: intramuscular (i.m.) and intravenous (i.v.) administration of narcotics; epidural or subarachnoid administration of narcotics and/or local anesthetics; and peripheral nerve blocks with local anesthetics. In terms of efficacy, cost, risk, and personnel requirements, the particular advantages of continuous analgesia techniques--including patient-controlled analgesia--are discussed.