Acute postoperative pain in women undergoing gynecologic surgery

Abstract

Introduction: Acute postoperative pain is a predictable problem whose prevention and adequate control can avoid unnecessary suffering, save healthcare resources and improve the quality of life of patients after gynecological surgery. Nurses are key players on the approach to pain, and they should be able to assess the different dimensions that constitute this phenomenon. Objectives: To identify characteristics of acute postoperative pain (intensity, severity, functional interference of pain) in patients undergoing gynecological surgery and analyze the relationship between psychological variables and acute postoperative pain in women undergoing gynecological surgery. Methodology: This is a descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study. We had studied a sample of 76 women admitted to the Gynecology Service from a hospital in the north of Portugal. The questionnaire was applied in two moments: Moment I - preoperative evaluation performed after the admittance of patients to hospitalization; Moment II - on the second postoperative day, 48 hours after surgery. In addition to sociodemographic variables, the questionnaire integrated three instruments translated and validated for the Portuguese population, possessing good psychometric properties - Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Pain Associated Discouragement Scale (PCS). Results: The women were mostly aged between 48 and 57 years, married. In the postoperative period, the presence of pain was reported by 83.9% of women; post-operative anxiety had a mean value of 8.32 (SD=3.55), indicating mild levels of anxiety. It was observed that women had, on average, moderate postoperative pain (3.83±2.34). None of the psychological variables studied has shown to influence the intensity of PADO (p>0.05). In the same sense, the severity of pain wasn’t influenced by the level of anxiety or depression. Catastrophizing, on the other hand, determined significant differences (p=0.040). Conclusion: Acute pain in the post-operative period at gynecological surgery is an aspect that should concern health professionals, because pain control it’s a patients right namely for the quality of health services and care, and also for economic reasons, since that pain in the post-operative period it’s associated with slower recovery, more post-operative complications and longer hospital stays.