Original article
English
Acute Postoperative Pain Management
Department of Anaesthesiology, Tripoli Medical Centre, Tripoli, Libya
JMJ 2008,Vol.8, No.3:180-185
Abstract
The aim of this prospective observational study was to assess the effectiveness of postoperative pain management from the patient’s subjective point of view based on questionnaire survey. The observations were restricted to 98 inpatients who were interviewed twice during an early postoperative period according to the questionnaire. All patients underwent a subjective pain intensity rating, at rest, on deep breath, on cough and on movement. According to the interview, 6 hours postoperatively 10-23% of patients experienced spontaneous pain, 24- 28% pain on deep breathing, 40- 54% pain on coughing, 87- 96 % pain on movement. 47% of patients were completely satisfied with postoperative analgesia, 41% of patients were satisfied partially and 12% of patients were not satisfied. There was a significant correlation (p < 0.05) in terms of gender and personality stability with intensity of postoperative pain, either 6 hours or 24 hours postoperatively. The data indicated that 28% of patients 6 hours postoperatively and 24 % of patients 24 hours postoperatively experienced unacceptable levels of postoperative pain (pain on deep breathing). Our results suggested that, in the population studied, male gender and unstable personality are significant predictors of poor tolerance of acute postoperative pain. Regardless of unsatisfactory condition of postoperative pain control in our hospital, the results of analgesia from the patient's subjective point of view were not dramatically different comparatively to the data from the developed countries. Keywords: Acute pain, Postoperative pain, Postoperative analgesia. Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/PDF/autumn2008/180.pdf