The effect of patients' pain on fear of movement and quality of life in two different thoracic surgery

This study was performed as a descriptive cross-sectional study to evaluate the effect of experienced pain on fear of movement (kinesiophobia) and quality of life after thoracotomy and VATS methods used in thoracic surgery. The population of the study was all patients who were operated with thoracotomy or VATS methods and hospitalized in the Chest, Cardiovascular Surgery Inpatient Service of Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine Adult Hospital, and the sample was 65 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The data were collected in three phases (preoperative, postoperative day 2, and discharge day) using a questionnaire form prepared by the researcher, VAS, TKS, and EORTC QLQ-C30 Quality of Life Questionnaire. "Independent Sample t-test", "Paired Sample t-test", "Repeated Measures" test, "Mann-Whitney U" test, "Wilcoxon" test, "Friedman" test, "Fisher-Exact" test, and "Pearson " and "Spearman" correlation coefficient were used to data analysis. The pain and kinesiophobia scores in the postoperative 2nd day of the patients with thoracotomy were higher than the patients with VATS. Besides, it was found that symptom scores, one of the sub-parameters of quality of life, were higher; and functional scores and general health scores were lower in patients with thoracotomy compared to patients with VATS on the day of discharge. Except that, it was found that pain scores were not affected kinesiophobia and quality of life in both patient groups on the day of discharge. In conclusion, effective pain control in the early postoperative period, kinesophobia assessment, the reasons that increase the perception of kinesophobia evaluation, and encourage the patients to mobilization should be included in nursing care, especially in patients with thoracotomy. Also, patients' current symptoms, psychological conditions, and social situations should be evaluated with appropriate scales and the healing process should be supported by increasing the perceived quality of life levels. Keywords: kinesiophobia, nursing care, quality of life, thoracotomy, VATS