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. 2016 Oct;60(10):737-743.
doi: 10.4103/0019-5049.191686.

Prevalence of acute post-operative pain in patients in adult age-group undergoing inpatient abdominal surgery and correlation of intensity of pain and satisfaction with analgesic management: A cross-sectional single institute-based study

Prashant Kumar Singh  1 , Priyam Saikia  2 , Mangala Lahakar  3
Affiliations

Prevalence of acute post-operative pain in patients in adult age-group undergoing inpatient abdominal surgery and correlation of intensity of pain and satisfaction with analgesic management: A cross-sectional single institute-based study

Prashant Kumar Singh et al. Indian J Anaesth. 2016 Oct.

Abstract

Background and aims: Considering the paucity of regional data, this study was designed to investigate the prevalence of post-operative pain and determine if there exists any correlation between the intensity of post-operative pain and patient's level of satisfaction with their pain management after inpatient abdominal surgery at an academic tertiary care government centre.

Methods: Pain intensity was measured in 120 patients with numeric rating scale at the fifth post-operative hour, second and third post-operative day. A questionnaire was used to measure the level of satisfaction with nurse's and doctor's response to their pain and overall pain management.

Results: The prevalence of post-operative pain was 84.17%, 92.5% and 96.66% at the fifth post-operative hour, second and third post-operative day, respectively. Less number of patients experienced severe intensity pain on the third post-operative day (P = 0.00046), whereas the number of patients experiencing mild pain increased (P < 0.000) compared to the fifth post-operative hour. The number of patients with complete analgesia decreased on the third post-operative day (P = 0.001 compared to fifth post-operative day). The Spearman correlation coefficient between pain score on the third post-operative day and level of satisfaction with nurse's response, doctor's response to pain and the overall pain management was - 0.0218 (P = 0.8107), 0.1307 (P = 0.1553) and 0.0743 (P = 0.4195), respectively.

Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of acute post-operative pain in patients undergoing inpatient abdominal surgery at our institute. There is a weak correlation between the intensity of pain and level of satisfaction with pain management.

Keywords: Numeric rating scale; pain; patient satisfaction; post-operative.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Box-and-whisker plot of intensity of pain during the study
Figure 2
Figure 2
Spearman correlation coefficient and receiver operating characteristics curve of numeric rating scale and level of satisfaction
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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