Just an inquiry

I am not looking for medical advice and I know that I will meet with anesthesia before my surgery, but that is 6 weeks away and I was just curious about something the surgeon mentioned.

I am having ankle surgery and the doctor mentioned that inaddition to being under general the anesthesiologist would put in a "pain catheter with a ball of pain medicine" in the incision.

Does this mean it will stay in for a while after surgery or is this just for the procedure?

Is this basically something like PCA only without the patient control?

Again, I will be asking more questions when I meet with anesthesia, but was just wondering about this.

TIA