Perception of pain in post-surgical patients in intensive care units

Introduction: Pain assessment and treatment are essential for ensuring quality of care as well as for improving patient's satisfaction and clinical outcomes.

Objectives: 1) To describe pain perception of surgical patients admitted to our Intensive Care Unit(ICU). 2) To compare the patients' pain perception with the assessment carried out by nurses. 3) To correlate International Pain Outcomes Questionnaire results with socio-demographical data.

Methodology: A prospective descriptive observational study was carried out in the ICU of a third level university hospital over a period of 3 months. Surgical patients' pain-perception was assessed 24hours after their admission to the ICU using the Spanish translation of International Pain Outcomes Questionnaire.

Results: The highest pain score recorded among 109 patients by nurses was 4.47±2.75, while, the lowest was .69±1,25. However, the highest and lowest pain scores reported by patients were 5.59±2.72 and 2.13±2.03, which showed significant differences (P <0.001). The highest pain score seemed to be related to the type of surgery (P <0.027). There are significant variations in the lowest pain score depending on age (P=0.005 r=-0.270). Likewise, the worst pain score correlated with the patients' sex (P=0.004). Patients who reported that pain made them feel very anxious or helpless scored highest with the worst pain, 7.35±1.98, 7.44±1.85 respectively. These differences were statistically significant (P=0.001, P <0.001). Regarding to the score of less pain, there is an association with feeling anxiety (P=0.032) and not with feeling helpless (P=-0.088).

Conclusions: The post-surgical patients reported pain during the first 24hours following admission to ICU (max score 5.59±.26). The nurses underestimated the patients' reported pain. Improving nurses' education would provide them with assessment strategies for better pain management. Age, sex, anxiety and helplessness caused by pain, were variables that significantly influenced pain.