The procedural pain levels of adult patients who had an open heart surgery and connected to mechanical ventilator

This research was done to determine the pain levels as behaviors of adult patients who had open heart surgery and connected to mechanical ventilator in intensive care unit in the process (pre/during/post) of eye care (nonnociceptive) and endotracheal aspiration (nociceptive) procedures.METHOD: The samples of the research which was sectional, observational and descriptive were 100 patients who had open heart surgery and connected to mechanical ventilator in intensive care unit at the university hospital in İzmir. Patients Characteristics Form and Behavioral Pain Scale (BPS) were used for data collection. The BPS included total 12 items: 3 basic subscales included facial expression, movements of the upper limbs and compliance with ventilation. Each subscales have four subitems which have a range score of 1-4 (1= no response, 4= full response). The minimum point is 3 and maximum point is 12 as a result of the scale. The high point shows increasing level of the pain. The validity and reliability of the scale in Turkey were done by Vatansever (2004). The data were collected based the researcher's observation. Pooled data were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance for repeated measurements.RESULTS: When the mean of BPS points in the process of the eyecare procedure and the mean of BPS points in the process of endotracheal aspiration procedure were compared, it was found that the highest mean of BPS points had been in the during endotracheal aspiration procedure, (F=66.487, p=0.000).CONCLUSION: It had been observed the highest pain levelsd during procedure according to behaviors was endotrackeal aspiration. The most changes during eye care and endotracheal aspiration procedures had been observed on patients? facial expression.KEY WORDS: Behavioral pain scale, pain assessment, intensive care, eye care, endotracheal aspiration