[Xenon for postoperative analgesia: why not?].

Xenon is widely used for maintenance of anesthesia, however the analgesic effect of this noble gas brings to an idea of its use in analgesic schemes. The first time antinociceptive features of Xe were described by B. Lachman and colleagues in 1988. It is well known that Xe realises its analgesic potential through powerful non-competitive blockade of NMDA-glutamate receptors, by that suppressing the development of hyperalgesia process in neurons of posterior horns of spinal cord, which take part in the process of pain transmission and forming of central sensitization and becoming the actual "gates of pain". In the given review the literature data on mechanisms, effectiveness, safety and farmacoeconomic justification of the use of Xe as an analgesic in clinical practice are brought up.