Factors related to patient satisfaction regarding spinal anesthesia.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Regional anesthesia has been shown to improve the clinically oriented outcome and many studies investigating the use of regional anesthesia have incorporated patient satisfaction measurements. This study was undertaken to find the factors related to patient satisfaction after spinal anesthesia which is the most frequent regional anesthesia conducted. METHOD: A prospective descriptive study of spinal anesthesia and post-operative survey of patients on the day after surgery was conducted by collecting pre-operative and intra-operative data on a constructed questionaire. Post-operative data including average pain score, satisfaction score of receiving spinal anesthesia, adverse effects and willingness to accept or refuse spinal anesthesia for a similar surgery again were asked by the performer of spinal anesthesia or trained anesthesia personnel. RESULTS: The average satisfaction score of receiving spinal anesthesia of 522 patients was 8.30 +/- 1.80 which was divided into 502 (96.2%) of satisfied patients (satisfaction score > or = 5) and 20 (3.8%) of dissatisfied patients (satisfaction score < 5). Factors associated with dissatisfaction were the increasing number of attempts of spinal block, p = 0.028, OR = 0.67 (0.48-0.96); pain during spinal block, p = 0.035, OR = 0.77 (0.60-0.98), inadequate analgesia, p = 0.005, OR = 0.07 (0.01-0.45) and post-operative urinary retention, p < 0.001, OR = 0.07 (0.02-0.28). Factors associated with refusal to have spinal anesthesia for similar surgery again were female gender, p = 0.008, OR = 6.00 (1.61-22.37), low body weight, p = 0.009, OR = 0.95 (0.92-0.98), intra-operative vomiting, p = 0.01, OR = 5.02 (1.47-17.08) and low satisfaction score of spinal anesthesia, p < 0.001, OR = 0.04 (0.01-0.12). CONCLUSION: The patients receiving spinal anesthesia gave a high rate of patient satisfaction score of receiving spinal anesthesia. Ensuring quality of spinal anesthesia, improving clinical skill of anesthesiologists and prevention of side effects especially urinary retention would improve patient satisfaction.