Introduction: Pain causes suffering, distress and poor quality of life, may be associated with emotional, spiritual or present damage, is one of the most common causes of the doctor's search, and may be responsible for the increase in postoperative complications. Due to the need to treat discomfort in the postoperative period, criteria were defined to assess the degree of pain, such as the application of a verbal numeric rating scale, where patients are asked to rate the level of their pain.Objective: to describe pain management in adult patients with visual analogue scale (VAS) submitted to general anesthesia.Methodology: This is a study of narrative bibliographic review. The present research analyzed scientific articles in the LILACS and SciELO database. For this study, articles from 2012 to 2016 were included, with full text availability and free electronic media, in the Portuguese language, that addressed the topic of Pain Management in the postoperative period.Results: 10 studies were identified, and the content was analyzed according to the theme. Final considerations: Based on the results, the important role of the nursing team in the adequate management of pain is highlighted. The multidisciplinary team must participate in an active and humanized way in the treatment. It is recommended to value the subjectivity of the patient's report taking into account their complaints and requests, it is necessary to develop bonds of trust and communication with the patient, besides the evaluation of the biopsychosocial state, because at this moment the patient is fragile.