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Pain control after major surgery
A O Amata1, L N Samaroo, S N Monplaisir
1Public Hospital Georgetown, Guyana.
Objective:
To assess the adequacy and efficacy of postoperative pain management.
Design:
A prospective clinical study.
Setting:
The Georgetown and New Amsterdam Public Hospitals, Guyana.
Subjects:
Two hundred consecutive patients undergoing major abdominal surgery.
Main Outcome Measures:
Presence or absence of significant postoperative pain during the first 24 hours.
Results:
All the patients experienced pain postoperatively. Sixty one per cent of patients considered their pain severe, 30% rated it moderate and only 9% mild. Reasons for this deficiency of care are partly attributable to the patients themselves and also the health care staff.
Conclusions:
Postoperative pain is poorly managed in our general hospitals.