Postoperative pain intensity and patient satisfaction: A multicentre observational study

Background

Postoperative pain remains a prevalent issue, whose intensity is often inadequately controlled. This could lead to complications, longer hospital stays and unnecessary suffering. Understanding surgical patients' perspectives on pain management can help to identify areas for improvement.

Objective

Determine postoperative pain prevalence and intensity, and satisfaction with pain management, of hospitalised patients. Methods: Multicentre, cross-sectional correlational study. Participants: Aged over 18 years who underwent surgery, provided voluntary consent and were able to complete a survey. Variables: socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, surgical speciality, pain during hospitalisation, information, expectations and satisfaction with received care. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire adapted from the American Pain Society was used.

Results

1327 patients answered the survey, 927 (69.9 %) reported postsurgery pain. The mean pain intensity at rest was 5.23 (SD = 2.75; 95%CI: 5.05–5.40), and was 5.7 (SD = 2.69; 95%CI: 5.53–5.87) when moving. Satisfaction with pain management was high, with 301 (22.7 %) patients feeling satisfied and 786 (59.2 %) very satisfied. In the multivariate linear regression, the factors that were statistically and significantly associated with higher pain intensity were presence of presurgical chronic pain, various surgical specialities and female gender. The belief that pain can be relieved was associated with lower intensity.

Conclusions

The percentage of patients who reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the way their pain was managed exceeded 80 %. Pain prevalence was high, with a mean intensity of 5.23 at rest and one of 5.7 when moving (0–10 scale).