Abstract
Background Pain is the subjective feeling of an individual, which affects the overall recovery of patients after cardiac surgery. Postoperative pain is the most inadequately managed symptom of cardiac surgery. Subsequently, there are many factors that can either hinder or facilitate pain management, including patients' beliefs, cultural values, physiological features, hospital policies, and healthcare providers' knowledge and beliefs. The purpose of this research was to identify factors associated with postoperative pain and its management, after cardiac surgery, among patients in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods Quantitative correlational study design was employed to attain the study purpose. Data were collected from 136 adult cardiac surgery patients admitted in the Cardiothoracic Surgery (CTS) Department, of tertiary care hospital. A self-developed questionnaire tool was used to gather information from patients. Data was then analyzed on SPSS version 19. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, and Spearman tests were applied to find the associations between the pain levels and of the independent variables. Results The mean pain scores of the first, second, and third postoperative days were found to be 2.98, 2.96, and 2.98, respectively. The findings also showed that BMI and the types of surgery were significantly associated with postoperative pain. Patients' beliefs regarding drug dependency, fear of adverse effects, and postoperative physical activities were also associated with pain. Furthermore, the nurses' education level and reluctance in medication administration due to fear of adverse effects were found to be significant too. Conclusion The study identified some of the important factors that were associated with postoperative pain. The results suggest the need for the enhancement of patients' education on drug dependency, adverse effects, and physical activity, before cardiac surgery. The nurses should be educated on pain management keeping the patients' culture and other perceptions of pain in mind.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are an area of major health problem worldwide [1]
The present study aimed to identify factors associated with postoperative pain and its management, after cardiac surgery, among patients in a tertiary care hospital of Karachi, Pakistan
This study reported a mild postoperative pain score for the first, second, and third postoperative days, among the cardiac surgery patients
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are an area of major health problem worldwide [1]. The burden of CVD is about 80% higher among individuals from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and risk of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is 3 to 5 times higher in the South Asian population than in other ethnicities [2, 3]. Pain has been defined as the most important and inadequately managed symptom that affects the overall recovery of cardiac surgery patients [8, 9]. Pain is the subjective feeling of an individual, which affects the overall recovery of patients after cardiac surgery. Postoperative pain is the most inadequately managed symptom of cardiac surgery. The purpose of this research was to identify factors associated with postoperative pain and its management, after cardiac surgery, among patients in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Patients' beliefs regarding drug dependency, fear of adverse effects, and postoperative physical activities were associated with pain. The results suggest the need for the enhancement of patients' education on drug dependency, adverse effects, and physical activity, before cardiac surgery. The nurses should be educated on pain management keeping the patients’ culture and other perceptions of pain in mind
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