The investigation of postoperative pain level and management quality in patients with cardiac surgery

Cardiac surgery is one of the operations that cause severe pain in patients among other operation types. According to the researches, pain management is one of the factors that affect postoperative pain in the patients with cardiac surgery. It has been identified in various studies that pain management affects the feeling of pain. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of postoperative pain treatment in the patients undergoing cardiac surgery from a patient's point of view, and to compare the postoperative pain scores and operation-based pain levels. This research was planned and conducted in a descriptive manner. The population of the study consisted of individuals who had undergone cardiac surgery in cardiovascular surgery service in Gaziantep Medical Park Hospital between April 2017 and February 2018 while the study group consisted of 94 patients over the age of 18, who had no communication problems and accepted to participate in the study. Of the patients who participated in the study, 66.0% were male, 34.0% were female, 17.0% were illiterate, 54.3% were illiterate / primary education graduates, 19.1% were high school and 9.6% were university graduates. QUIPS questionnaire and Mc Gill - Melzack Pain Questionnaire were used in the study as data collection tools. It was determined that 58.5% of the patients had received preoperative pain training, 88.3% of them received training on their operation and 87.2% of those who received training were given training by the physician. The patients who were most satisfied with the pain treatment after surgery were those who had been operated due to vascular diseases. The patients who had surgery due to vascular diseases had the highest mean pain rate after surgery, and the difference between the groups was not significant. It was found that the patients who had surgery due to valve diseases had the least pain after surgery, and the difference between the groups was significant (p = 0.022). It has been concluded that the pain rates of the patients who had a heart surgery are at an average level and that the quality of pain management is high enough not to affect the physiological requirements, such as sleep and movement. We recommend that the operation teams provide preoperative training, respiratory training and pain training to patients. Key Words: Cardiac surgery, postoperative pain, pain management, QUIPS, Mc Gill– Melzack