Evaluation of acute postoperative pain and patient satisfaction in laparotomy, cholecystectomy and herniorrhaphy

Aim and Acute post-operative pain is the most frightening aspect of a surgical procedure. This study has been designed to evaluate post-operative pain after common abdominal surgeries, and also to assess patient satisfaction with pain management in the department of surgery in order to understand whether enough attention has been paid to this type of treatment. Methods and Materials: In a prospective cross-sectional study, a questionnaire with 20 items including kind of surgery, intensity of pain using a verbal analogue scale (VAS), type of consumed analgesics and patient satisfaction with post-operative pain management, was given to the patients within 24 hours after surgery. Participants were 390 patients (56% male and 44% female), with the age range between 10 and 85 years. The average maximum post-operative pain score was 8.2±2 using VAS. Most of the patients (92.3%) were partially or moderately satisfied with the pain relief method, while 7.7% had some degree of dissatisfaction. Methadone was the most commonly administered analgesic. To achieve higher levels of pain control and patient satisfaction we should pay more attention to pain relief and other effective factors such as kind of incision and analgesics.