Acute Pain Services and pain-related patient-reported outcomes in Hungarian hospitals

Postoperative pain management is an important part of surgical care, where Acute Pain Service offers added value in terms of patient outcomes and costs. The technology, however, has hardly been adopted in Hungary, with only two hospitals operating Acute Pain Service and whose performance has not been evaluated yet. This research compared pain management outcomes of surgical, orthopedic, and traumatology patients in Hungarian hospitals with and without Acute Pain Service.

We recruited 348 patients, 120 in the APS group and 228 in the control group, whose experience was surveyed with an adapted version of the American Pain Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire. The questionnaire covered pain intensity, pain interference with physical and emotional functions, side effects, patient satisfaction, information received, and participation in treatment decisions. The differences were analyzed by Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U test.

The APS group showed better results with lower pain intensity scores regarding worst postoperative pain (χ² = 18.919, p = 0.0043). They reported less pain interference with activities in bed (χ² = 21.978, p = 0.0006) and out of bed (χ² = 14.341, p = 0.0129). Furthermore, patients in the APS group experienced fewer pain-management-related side effects, like nausea (χ² = 15.240, p = 0.0101), drowsiness (χ² = 26.965, p = 0.0001), and dizziness (χ² = 13.980, p = 0.0124). However, patient information (χ² = 3.480, p = 0.0945) and patient satisfaction (χ² = 5.781, p = 0.2127) did not differ significantly between the two groups.

Our findings confirm earlier international evidence on the benefits of Acute Pain Service in postoperative pain management and support the wider adoption of the technology in Hungarian hospitals. Nevertheless, close attention should be paid to patient information and involvement as better outcomes alone do not necessarily increase patient satisfaction.