Post operative pain therapy: a survey of prescribing patterns and adequacy of analgesia in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: To establish prescribing patterns for post operative pain therapy, it's adequacy, as well as patients' satisfaction with the prescriptions.

Design: A survey of doctors' prescriptions for post operative pain therapy over a six month period.

Setting: The University College Hospital Ibadan, Nigeria, the oldest teaching hospital in the country.

Subjects: All consecutive adult elective general surgical patients operated on over a six month period, who were on admission for at least 72 hours after surgery. Patients with prolonged post operative unconsciousness or those unwilling to answer the questionnaire were excluded.

Intervention: The anaesthetic charts, recovery room and treatment sheet were reviewed to complete a structured, pretested and precoded questionnaire. Two other questionnaires were administered to patients at 24 and 48 hours post operatively to review the effect of the analgesic prescribed.

Results: 149 patients met the inclusion criteria. Moderate to unbearable pain was reported in 68.7% of the patients at 24 hours and 51.7% of patients by 48 hours. Post operative analgesics were to be given via only the intramuscular route in all cases. There was a limited range of drugs to choose from; pethidine, pentazocine and dipyrone were the only drugs available. Pethidine was prescribed four hourly in 2.7%, six hourly in 46.9% and eight hourly in 25.9%, of the cases. Eighty five percent of the patients who were given dipyrone complained of moderate to unbearable pain post operatively. Inadequate doses of analgesics were generally given. Despite the high incidence of pain, 63.9% of patients still reported that they were very satisfied with their pain relief.

Conclusion: Prescription patterns for post operative pain relief have not changed to include many of the new methods presently available. Only one route of administration is still used for a limited range of opioid and non-opioid drugs. Patients still experience a high incidence of moderate to unbearable pain in the post operative period. This can be improved by prescribing drugs at shorter intervals to reflect their pharmacokinetics and using newer techniques of drug administration.