Pain on a surgical ward: a survey of the duration and intensity of pain and the effectiveness of medication

Abstract

The effectiveness of analgesic medication for post-surgical pain was surveyed in a surgical ward of a large general hospital. Since earlier studies have shown that pain generally decreases rapidly and is negligible by the fourth day after surgery, the patients in the survey were assigned to 2 groups: those given analgesics during the first 4 days after surgery, and those given analgesics for pain after the fourth day. The results show that the patients with pain that persists beyond day 4 comprise a substantial proportion of the patients in a surgery ward (31%), are older, tend to use more words to describe their pain, and are helped less by their prescribed analgesic medications. This group is prescribed lower doses of analgesics and receives them more frequently; however, this prescription strategy appears to be ineffective since 26% of these patients report increased pain after medication compared to only 2% in the group that received analgesics during the first 4 days.

The effect of using a tourniquet on the intensity of postoperative pain in forearm fractures

“…It has been previously noted that postoperative pain is higher in older patients [11]. We found that avoidance of the tourniquet improved analgesia in both older patients and males, and if used it was best to apply for less than an hour.…”

“…The adverse effects of pneumatic tourniquets have been report as pain, paralysis, tendon rupture, pulmonary embolism, hypertension, tachycardia and increased body temperature during general anaesthesia [7,15]. Pain at the operation site is common after a procedure and should be controlled to enable optimal recovery [11]. We have analysed the relationship between the intensity of postoperative pain and the use of a pneumatic tourniquet during operations on the upper limb.…”

Mensuração e características de dor após cesárea e sua relação com limitação de atividades

“…The categories with most words were the subjective and mixed, followed by the sensorial and affective. When analyzing 88 post-cesarean section patients, a study (22) verified that most of the participants chose more words from the sensorial category, for McGill's Questionnaire presents most of its descriptors focused on this category (50% -34 words), followed by the affective category (25% -17 words), evaluative (7,3% -5 words) e mixed (17,7% -12 words). One author (23) criticizes the irregular distribution of McGill's Questionnaire, revealing that such disproportion interferes in the patients' choice, more concentrated in the sensorial category.…”

Dor pós-operatória: características quanti-qualitativa relacionadas a toracotomia póstero-lateral e esternotomia

“…Em outro estudo 13 , foram avaliados pacientes submetidos a intervenções cirúrgicas e observou-se Já na pesquisa com pacientes submetidos a toracotomia e toracoscopia para biopsia pulmonar quando comparadas as respostas de dor não observou-se diferença quanto a queixa álgica no pós-operatório 16 .…”