The Effect of Patient-controlled Analgesia on Intensity of Postoperative Pain in Abdominal Surgeries

Background: Unrelieved pain after surgery can lead to increased postoperative complications, prolonged hospital stay and delayed recovery. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) has emerged as a standard technique to manage acute postoperative pains. Objectives: The current study aimed to compare the effect of PCA and routine method on Intensity of post-operation pain in abdominal surgeries. Patients and Methods: It was an interventional study conducted on thirty patients admitted to Amir-al-momenin Hospitalin Ahvaz , Iran, in 2009. About 60 patients participated in the current study. The patients were randomly divided into two groups. The intervention group used PCA devices and the control group received the routine pain relief protocol. Measurement tools were demographic characteristic questionnaire, check list of vital signs and adverse effects and visual analog scale (VAS). Vital signs, pain severity, drug consumption and adverse effects were assessed every six hours during 24 hours after surgery. Then data were analyzed by SPSS version 16,?2, and t-test Results: There was a significant difference between the mean of pain severity and the amount of medications used by patients after surgery (P?0.001). But there was no significant difference between vital signs and side effects between the two groups. Conclusions: These findings indicate the usefulness of PCA compared to the routine methods on pain relief after operation.Therefore this method can be recommended to alleviate postoperative pain.