Excessive opioid prescribing after surgery has been recognised as a contributor to the current crisis of opioid addiction and overdose.

Clinicians may potentially tackle this crisis by using opioid-free postoperative analgesia; however, the scientific literature addressing this approach is sparse and heterogeneous, thereby limiting robust conclusions.

A scoping review was conducted to systematically map the extent, range, and nature of the literature addressing postoperative opioid-free analgesia.

Eight bibliographic databases were searched for studies addressing opioid-free analgesia after a major surgery.

We extracted the study characteristics, including design, country, year, surgical procedure(s), and interventions.

Results were organised thematically according to surgical specialty and targeted phase of recovery: in hospital (early recovery, ≤24 h after operation; intermediate recovery, >24 h) and post-discharge (late recovery).

Reporting was according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement for scoping reviews.