An Assessment of Postoperative Pain Management Undergoing Cesarean Section

Abstract

Postoperative pain management of cesarean patients has become a major medical and nursing challenge in all over the world. Due to the various constraints postoperative pain management of cesarean patient in Bangladesh got greater attention from the scientific community and policy makers. An observational study was conducted to assess the strategy, effectiveness, and safety of postoperative pain management in patients undergoing cesarean section in the obstetric unit in a district hospital, Hobigonj, Bangladesh during the period from February 2022 to August 2022. We recorded patient’s demographics, postoperative pain orders, and analgesia regime on the day of surgery. Anesthesia team, which included one of the investigators, assessed the overall pain since the time of surgery by visual analogue scale (VAS) and also recorded any complications since the time of surgery and patients’ satisfaction with the pain management. A total of 150 patients were reviewed during the study period. The common modality of pain management was intravenous opioid infusion (94%) and co-analgesia was used in 99% of patients. The analysis of pain at rest by VAS was between 1 and 3 in 89.7%, 4 and 6 in 9.5%, and 7 and 10 in 0.8% of patients. The VAS on movement was 1–3 in 60.1%, 4–6 in 33.1%, and 7–10 in 6.8% of patients. Patients’ opinion regarding postoperative pain management was satisfactory in 76.60% of patients and unsatisfactory in 23.40% of patients. In the conclusion, we can say, the regime for postoperative pain management was mostly started and followed by both the teams at the hospital and was not adequately satisfied.