[Pain and respiratory physical therapy in patients after heart surgery]

Between the months of March and June 1997, an extended observational study was carried out on 32 patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit of "Hospital General Universitario" in Alicante for postoperative care after undergoing heart surgery which included extracorporeal circulation. The variables analyzed were of a socio-demographical nature and related to the type of operation in order to homogenize the samples. The main variables under study were pain while resting and pain while carrying out these exercises: coughing, deep breathing, stimulated inspirometer, and clapping; the number of balls the patient could raise; collaboration with the physical therapist and the kind of analgesic administered. The pain measuring instrument was the visual analogous scale. The patients with the highest pain levels when performing the protocolary extubation exercises raised fewer balls in the stimulated inspirometer exercise and did not collaborate with the physical therapist. The patients who receive more doses of sedatives collaborate with the respiratory physical therapist. All those patients who receive an analgesic at a set hour raise one or two balls in the inspirometer exercise and all collaborated with the physical therapist.