Experience of Pain and Satisfaction with Pain Management in Patients After a Lumbar Disc Herniation Surgery

The descriptive study was performed to assess patients' pain experienced in the early postoperative period of a lumbar disc herniation surgery and their satisfaction with the pain management administered.

This was a descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted from May 8 to November 8, 2017.

Data collection was performed during interviews through the Patient Information Form (20 questions), Turkish version of clinical quality indicators in the Postoperative Pain Management questionnaire (19 questions). The questionnaire included 14 items and 3 subdimensions named nursing interventions, pain management, and the environment. The remaining 5 questions were related to pain management satisfaction and pain severity. Questionnaire items scored on a 1 to 5 Likert scale. The higher the total score obtained from the questionnaire is the satisfaction with pain management increases.

The mean score obtained from the total questionnaire was 51.4 (standard deviation: 6.6).Characteristics of patients with lumbar disc herniation did not influence the total score obtained from the instrument and its sub-dimensions (P > .05). Overall satisfaction with pain management was high (mean: 8.3; standard deviation: 1.6) on the 0 to 10 visual analog scale. There was a statistically significant difference between the length of hospital stay, the type of anesthesia used, having more pain than expected, and the satisfaction score of patients (P < .05). As the length of procedure increases, the average and current pain scores increase as well (P < .05).

Results of this study indicate that despite pain experienced after the lumbar disc herniation surgery, patients' satisfaction with pain management was high. Encouraging nurses to implement systematic and evidence-based practices in pain management may help alleviate patients' pain after surgery and reduce variety of pain management practices among nurses.