All postoperative care of the patient is generally the same. The anesthesia technique may be general anesthesia. For specific patient cases, regional anesthesia may be indicated. The use of regional anesthesia provides analgesia to the patient by numbing the area, while avoiding the potential side effects resulting from the use of general anesthesia. Immediately upon arrival to the Phase I PACU, one major priority is airway management and safety. If the patient arrives to the PACU with the head of the bed flat, unless raising the head is contraindicated, the PACU RN will usually gradually and incrementally raise the head of the bed to assist the patient as he or she emerges from the anesthetic. Once the patient’s continued airway patency is ensured, the patient may be placed in a semi-Fowler’s position postoperatively to relieve tension on the suture line and to promote drainage. The abdominal incisions are fairly high, long, and painful, and particular attention must be paid to pulmonary toilet. This type of patient must be encouraged more frequently than any other to expand the lungs and to cough and must generally have assistance to change position. Assistance in splinting the wound with the hands or with a firm pillow is most appreciated by the patient. These procedures generally produce considerable postoperative pain, and analgesics should be used generously but judiciously. Patient-controlled or epidural analgesia may be effective for upper abdominal incisional and visceral pain (Schick & Windle, 2016).