[Analysis of the treatment of postoperative pain at 3 hospitals]

Postoperative pain management protocols have been examined in a total of 212 patients from three Spanish hospitals. Metamizole was the analgesic drug most frequently prescribed (50%) followed by pethidine (18.4%). To a lesser degree, aspirin, pentazocine, lysine acetylsalicylate, paracetamol and buprenorphine were used. Important differences among the hospitals were found when choosing the analgesic. The dosage prescribed varied and in general, drugs were prescribed at lower doses than the daily defined dose (DDD). Intramuscular route was the most used. Only 27.6% of the patients received the prescribed doses and 43.3% received a lower one. This was basically due to a greater interval of dosing. 14.6% of the patients were painless while 25.5% showed intense and unbearable pain. From this study one may conclude that when metamizole is preferably used as an analgesic drug, it is given at a smaller dose than that recommended and in addition, nurses decrease even more the doses. An important number of patients were found with intense pain even though analgesic drugs were given.