Incidence, patient satisfaction, and perceptions of post-surgical pain: results from a US national survey

Abstract

Objective:

During the past two decades, professional associations, accrediting bodies, and payors have made post-surgical pain treatment a high priority. In light of the disappointing findings in previous surveys, a survey was conducted to assess patient perceptions and characterize patient experiences/levels of satisfaction with post-surgical pain management.

Research design and methods:

Survey included a random sample of US adults who had undergone surgery within 5 years from the survey date. Participants were asked about their concerns before surgery, severity of perioperative pain, pain treatments, perceptions about post-surgical pain and pain medications, and satisfaction with treatments they received.

Results:

Of the 300 participants, ∼86% experienced pain after surgery; of these, 75% had moderate/extreme pain during the immediate post-surgical period, with 74% still experiencing these levels of pain after discharge. Post-surgical pain was the most prominent pre-surgical patient concern, and nearly half reported they had high/very high anxiety levels about pain before surgery. Approximately 88% received analgesic medications to manage pain; of these, 80% experienced adverse effects and 39% reported moderate/severe pain even after receiving their first dose.

Study limitations:

Key study limitations include the relatively small population size, potential for recall bias associated with the 14-month average time delay from surgery date to survey date, and the inability to account for influences of type of surgery and intraoperative anesthetic/analgesic use on survey results.

Conclusions:

Despite heightened awareness and clinical advancements in pain management, there has been little improvement in post-surgical analgesia as measured by this survey of post-surgical patients.

Keywords::

• Post-surgical pain
• Analgesia
• Survey
• Pain
• Patient satisfaction

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This survey was supported in part by a research grant from Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Personnel from Pacira had no role in development of the survey, conducting the study, or analysis of results.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

Dr Tong Gan has received research funding from AcelRx, Cumberland, Fresenius, Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Covidien. Dr Timothy Miller is a consultant for Covidien, Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, and Hospira, Inc., and has received research funding from Cheetah Medical. Dr Ashraf Habib, Mr William White, and Dr Jeffrey Apfelbaum have no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose. CMRO Peer Reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Acknowledgments

Writing and editorial assistance was provided by Michael Morren, RPh, MBA, of Peloton Advantage, LLC, supported by Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The authors were fully responsible for the content, editorial decisions, and opinions expressed in the current article. The authors did not receive an honorarium related to the development of this manuscript.