Investigation of the pain levels and daily life activities of patients who applied tube thoracostomy after chest surgery

Purpose : The aim of this study was to investigate the pain levels and daily living activities of patients who underwent tube thoracostomy after thoracic surgery. Methods : This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The target population of the study consisted of patients who underwent tube thoracostomy after thoracic surgery in 2 university hospitals. The sample consisted of 130 patients who agreed to participate in the study. In this study, sociodemographic and surgical data were collected using the Individual Characteristics Form, Mcgill Melzack Pain Questionnaire (MMPQ), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Katz Daily Living Activities Scale (Katz ADL). For the data obtained, t test, Kruskal Wallis test, Man Whitney U test, chi square test, sperm correlation and linear regression analysis were performed. Results : The mean pain score of the patients in the first 24 hours was 5.94 ± 2.26 according to the VAS (10 out of 10), the mean pain score was 4.15 ± 2.42 according to the VAS at the time of the first 24 hours, the mean pain intensity according to MMPQ was 2.22 ± 1.02 (out of 5). No statistically significant difference was found between the mean postoperative pain scores of the patients according to the surgical methods in the first 24 hours. Patients were dependent, according to Katz ADL, 75.4% dressing, 51.5% during transfer, 50.8% bathroom, 5.4% going to the toilet, 10.8% nutritional activity. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between the total score and the mean pain score of the patients. (r: .44, p: 0.000) Conclusion : Patients who underwent tube thoracostomy after thoracic surgery experience moderate pain after surgery and they are dependent to daily living activities. As the severity of pain increases, dependence increases in daily living activity level. Key words : Thoracic Surgery, Tube Thoracostomy, Pain, Daily Living Activities, Nursing