A Patient-Based National Survey and Prospective Evaluation of Postoperative Pain Management in Spain: Prevalent but...

To evaluate the national general prevalence of postoperative pain and the associated organizational/structural factors related to the provision of health care services.

Observational prospective cohort study performed in 46 tertiary hospitals that were randomly selected from the Spanish National Inventory of Hospitals through a two-stage balanced and stratified procedure.

Nine-hundred surgical patients representing a wide spectrum of surgical procedures and anesthetic methods were recruited. Those suffering moderate or worse pain while in the postanesthesia care unit/surgery ward (PACU/SW) were followed for 72 hours. Site characteristics were also surveyed. Multilevel models were used to evaluate center- and patient-level factors associated with pain and quality of recovery (QoR). Weighted generalized estimating equations were used to analyze the evolution of pain intensity.

The prevalence while in and at discharge from the PACU/SW was 48.7% (cluster-adjusted 95% confidence interval [CI] = 38.1-59.2%) and 21.6% (95% CI = 15.4-27.8%), respectively. Pain intensity decreased significantly over time. Less than 20% of the patients received systemic patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) or regional analgesic techniques. Age, preexisting pain, type of surgery, use of general anesthesia, and postoperative potent opioids were associated with pain risk and intensity, as were center-level factors such as patient information, protocol availability, and coordination of care. In turn, QoR was related to pain intensity and patient satisfaction with analgesia and side effects.

Compared with previous reports, the prevalence of moderate/severe postoperative pain has decreased but remains excessive. Organizational improvements to deploy procedure-specific, opioid-sparing analgesic strategies including regional techniques are recommended.