Pattern of use of analgesics in post-operative pain management in adults undergoing laparotomy surgery: a prospective observational study

Abstract

Background: Previous studies on post-operative pain document that most patients continue to experience pain after surgery. This study was done to record the drug use for post- operative pain in laparotomy and to determine the patient characteristics that affect their pain score.Methods: A prospective observational study in 250 adult patients undergoing laparotomy surgery from General Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OBG) at a tertiary care hospital.Results: Among patients recruited, 161 (64.4%) were females, 134 (53.6 %) from surgery department, mean age 37.29±14.9 years. Caesarean section 85 (73.27%) followed by meshplasty 46 (34.3%) were most common.Parenteral tramadol 100mg (40%) was the most common analgesic post-operative, subsequently shifted to oral. Epidural analgesia used in 31 (12.4%) patients, only from surgery department. First analgesic received within 6 hrs in 55.5 % in surgery and 44.5 % in OBG (Pearson χ2 =2.535, p = 0.111) with mean time to first analgesic 2.85±2.33 hrs. Pain score, using Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) recorded for 200 (80%) patients showed 76 (30.4%) had severe pain on day 1 which decreased to 12 (4.8%) on day 3. Speciality (p=0.01) and nature of surgery (p=0.05) were significantly associated with severity of pain. Gender [OR = 0.55 (95% CI = 0.26, 1.19), p=0.13], nature of surgery  [2.32 (1.02, 5.32), p=0.05], speciality [0.35 (0.15, 0.80), p=0.01] and surgical category [0.76 (1.01, 5.32), p=0.05] affected pain score on univariate logistic regression, but were not significant on multivariate analysis.Conclusions: Despite the use of opioids and combination analgesics, one third of patients reported severe pain on the first day after surgery.