Assessing Postoperative Pain in Patients Who Underwent Total Knee Arthroplasty Using an Automated Self-Logging...

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic surgery
• Pain management
• Medical technology

Background:

• Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are crucial for assessing symptoms and care quality.
• Conventional PROM data collection methods hinder widespread implementation.
• Postoperative pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) may be linked to tourniquet use, necessitating improved data gathering.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the PainPad device.
• To quantify in-hospital postoperative pain following TKA.
• To compare pain levels in TKA patients with and without intraoperative tourniquet use.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective study of 234 TKA patients (2018-2021).
• Patients were divided into tourniquet and nontourniquet groups.
• The PainPad device collected pain scores every 2 hours for 24 hours post-surgery.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in 24-hour mean postoperative pain scores between the tourniquet (3.31) and nontourniquet (3.12) groups (P=.53).
• Tourniquet duration did not correlate with pain scores.
• Subgroup analysis showed no significant difference in pain or length of stay based on tourniquet duration (>90 vs. <90 minutes).

Conclusions:

• The PainPad device is a feasible and effective tool for collecting and evaluating in-hospital postoperative pain after TKA.
• It accurately quantifies individual patient pain levels.
• This aligns with healthcare's trend toward using technology for personalized, patient-centered care.