Can we do better with postoperative pain management?

Background: In the last decade, there has been heightened awareness that pain management needs to be a priority for all health care settings and clinicians. The article will overview practice guidelines and new technology, and assess their impact on pain relief in inpatient and outpatient surgeries...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of surgery 2001-11, Vol.182 (5), p.440-448
Main Authors: Huang, Nina, Cunningham, Francesca, Laurito, Charles E, Chen, Connie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambulatory Surgical Procedures
Analgesics
Anesthesia
Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy
Biological and medical sciences
Bone surgery
Clinical outcomes
Epidural
Guidelines
Health care
Health care policy
Humans
Local anesthesia. Pain (treatment)
Medical sciences
Narcotics
New technology
Orthopedics
Pain
Pain management
Pain, Postoperative - psychology
Pain, Postoperative - therapy
Patient Satisfaction
Patients
Perception
Pharmacists
Postoperative pain
Postoperative period
Postsurgical pain
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Quality control
Quality standards
Questionnaires
Society
Surgeons
Technology assessment
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:Background: In the last decade, there has been heightened awareness that pain management needs to be a priority for all health care settings and clinicians. The article will overview practice guidelines and new technology, and assess their impact on pain relief in inpatient and outpatient surgeries from a patient’s perspective. Methods: Literature was retrieved by searches from 1996 to 2000 Medline and CINAHL (nursing database), using keywords “postoperative pain,” “postsurgical pain,” “patient outcomes,” “pain outcomes,” “survey,” “questionnaire,” and “practice guidelines.” Results: Overall, current practice standards have had minimal impact on decreasing patients’ reports of pain. The incidence of moderate to severe pain with cardiac, abdominal, and orthopedic inpatient procedures has been reported as high as 25% to 50%, and incidence of moderate pain after ambulatory procedures is 25% or higher. Conclusions: Despite the advances, the incidence of pain remains high. Yet the future is promising, with new standards from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health care Organizations paving the way for reduction of institutional barriers and improved implementation of guidelines.
ISSN:0002-9610
1879-1883
DOI:10.1016/S0002-9610(01)00766-8