AB225. Incidence of post-operative pain in the post anaesthetic care unit

Background: Post-operative pain is a common complication post procedure with up to 50% of patients reporting pain within the first 30 minutes post procedure and up to 12% of patients reporting extreme pain. Currently there are no set guidelines on post-operative pain management due to need for individualized and tailored analgesia for both patient and procedure, though recognizing pain and prescribing appropriate analgesia is a key component in the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU).

Methods: Data was collected using a graded questionnaire completed by PACU nursing during a patient’s stay in the PACU over a four-week period. Intra and post-operative analgesia given and prescribed were noted through anaesthetic records provided to PACU staff. The questionnaire further identified patients that were reporting moderate pain scores or higher using the numeric rating scale (NRS-11).

Results: Questionnaires were completed for a total of 135 patients. Of the 135 patients, 45 reported NRS-11 pain scales higher than 4. Of the 45 cases of reported moderate pain or higher, 33 were prescribed for multimodal or escalating analgesic cover. Out of the 12 of the remaining 45 post-operative pain cases, 10 remained on singular analgesia/not escalated and 2 were not prescribed any post-operative analgesia.

Conclusions: Post-operative pain management are tailored and individualized plans that are overseen by an appropriately trained physician. From this audit we also report having moderate or higher pain scores is common in the PACU with 33% of patients reporting at least moderate pain.

Keywords: Post-operative pain; post procedural pain; post anaesthesia care unit