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Day case surgery in childhood from the parents' point of view
Insights
Postoperative pain management in pediatric day case surgery shows low analgesic needs but persistent pain memories. Improvements may involve nerve blocks, enhanced premedication, and reduced waiting times for better patient and parent experiences.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Surgery
- Pain Management
- Postoperative Care
Background:
- Day case surgery is increasingly common for pediatric procedures.
- Assessing patient and parent experiences is crucial for optimizing care.
- Understanding postoperative recovery, including pain, sleep, and psychological impact, is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate postoperative analgesia, pain memory, sleep patterns, and hospital stay duration in children undergoing day case surgery.
- To identify areas for improvement in the pediatric day case surgical experience.
Main Methods:
- A questionnaire was distributed to 294 parents of children who had day case surgery.
- The questionnaire covered postoperative pain relief, pain recall, sleep disturbances, and time spent in the hospital.
- Response rate was 80.6%.
Main Results:
- No significant behavioral or sleep disturbances were observed postoperatively.
- Analgesic requirements after hospital discharge were lower than anticipated.
- A notable percentage (16.8%) of children still reported unpleasant pain memories by the third postoperative day.
- Long waiting times between admission and surgery were perceived as highly unpleasant by parents.
Conclusions:
- While immediate postoperative analgesic needs are low, persistent pain memories highlight a need for improved pain management strategies.
- Nerve blocks, combined with analgesics, and optimized premedication could enhance pain control.
- Addressing long waiting periods and providing psychological support for parents during surgery are critical improvements.
Abstract:
294 parents whose children underwent day case surgery received a questionnaire covering the topics postoperative analgesia, memory of pain, sleep patterns and assessment of the time spent in the hospital. A total of 80.6% of the questionnaires were returned. We were not able to recognize any indications of behavioral disturbances, in particular disturbances of sleep. The need for analgesics was surprisingly low following release from the hospital. However, even on the third postoperative day 16.8% of the children still had unpleasant or strong memories of the pain they had experienced. Improvement in this area might be achieved by the application of nerve blocks, possibly in combination with analgesics. Further possibilities for improvement exist with premedication. The long waiting periods between hospital admittance and commencement of surgery were found to be very unpleasant. During surgery psychological counseling of the parents should be made possible.