[Memory for postoperative pain six months after discharge from the hospital]

To investigate memory for postoperative pain in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admitted patients after hospital discharge.

Prospective study by direct interviews.

Six months after hospital discharge, we interviewed adult, postoperative, co-operative patients consecutively admitted to ICU for more than 24 hrs, resident near the hospital, who gave informed consent. We investigated intensity of postoperative pain and recollections of critical care reported by patients. The following data were collected from medical records: type and duration of surgical intervention, type of anaesthesia and fentanyl dose, severity of illness at ICU admission, ICU and hospital (after ICU) length of stay and postoperative administration of morphine.

Of 130 patients interviewed, 82 (63%) reported no pain, 27 (21%) low and 21 (16%) more than low pain. Among these 3 groups of patients, there was no statistically significant difference in all the variables collected from medical records. Patients who remembered more than low pain recorded emotional distress more frequently (p < 0.001) and physical discomfort less frequently (p < 0.01) than patients whose pain was absent or low.

Most patients report that postoperative pain, during their ICU stay, was absent or low. Emotional distress seems to be related to memory for postoperative pain.