ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The prevention and control of acute postoperative pain is essential, not only to avoid unnecessary suffering, but to reduce postoperative morbidity, recovery time, hospital stay and associated costs. AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of implementing the Clinical Best Practice Guideline (BPG) "Assessment and Management of Pain" recommendations for pain control in surgical patients. METHODS: Prospective, observational, longitudinal study. SUBJECTS: Surgical patients over 14 admitted to the University Hospital Complex of Albacete, and discharged during the last working days of every month. VARIABLES: 1) demographic data, hospital stay. 2) The process indicators of BPG implementation. 3) Patient outcomes: prevalence and intensity of pain in the first 24 postsurgical hours, maximum intensity of pain during hospitalization. TOOLS: Scales of assessment of pain intensity (0-10). DATA COLLECTION: Database of BPSO/CCEC® Program. ETHICAL ASPECTS: Anonymous data. DATA ANALYSIS (SPSS® V12): Descriptive during four periods: baseline (T0: December 2012); initial (T1: June-December 2013); intermediate (T2: 2014-2015); consolidation (T3: 2016-2017). Measurements of central tendency and dispersion, absolute and relative frequencies, according to variables. Comparison of proportions (Chi-Square) and averages (Student t-test, ANOVA). STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE: p < 0.05. RESULTS: Included 3934 patients, 52.3% (2058) men. Daily intervention of pain detection was performed in 73.5% (2890) of patients (28% T0; 67.4% T1; 66.7% T2; 89.9% T3; p < 0.0001), assessment of pain with a scale in 65.2% (2567) (0% T0; 48.8% T1; 59.4% T2; 85.6% T3; p < 0.0001); 35.3% (1389) had a care plan for assessment and management of pain (0% T0; 34.6% T1; 32.3% T2; 42.3% T3; p < 0.0001). The percentage of patients who had serious pain (>5) during the first 24 h was reduced from 12.4% (T1) to 5.3% (T3) (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Implementation of recommendations has led to a statistically significant improvement over the periods in the study. Pain intensity and the percentage of patients with severe pain have decreased in a significant way.
