Stratified pain management counseling and implementation improving patient satisfaction: a prospective, pilot study

BACKGROUND: Post-operative pain is unpleasant for patients and may worsen surgical recovery. Peri-operative multimodal analgesia has been used for many years; however, its efficacy still needs improvement. In the present study, a thorough peri-operative pain counseling and stratified management program based on risk assessment was implemented, with the goal of improving post-operative analgesia and patient satisfaction. METHODS: This prospective, controlled, pilot study included 361 patients who underwent elective surgery. Of these 361 patients, 187 received peri-operative pain risk assessment and stratified analgesia and counseling (stratified analgesia group), while 174 received conventional multimodal analgesia (conventional group). The two groups were compared regarding the post-operative pain intensity, rescue analgesia administration, post-operative quality of recovery as assessed via the quality of recovery 40 questionnaire, total dosage of peri-operative opioids, analgesic satisfaction, and analgesic costs. RESULTS: Compared with the conventional group, the stratified analgesia group reported decreased pain intensity during motion at 24 h post-operatively and required lower dosages of rescue analgesia (P = 0.03). The total quality of recovery 40 questionnaire score and the scores for physical wellbeing and pain were significantly better in the stratified analgesia group than the conventional group (P = 0.04); the stratified analgesia group also reported better scores for analgesic satisfaction (P = 0.03) and received lower dosages of opioids (P = 0.03). Analgesic costs were lower in the stratified analgesia group than the conventional group; the cost-effective ratio was 109 in the conventional group and 62 in the stratified analgesia group. CONCLUSIONS: The analgesic efficacy was improved by the implementation of stratified analgesia based on surgical pain risk assessment and counseling. This stratified analgesia protocol increased the patients’ analgesic satisfaction and improved the quality of recovery without increasing healthcare costs. The present findings may help improve the efficacy of peri-operative multimodal analgesia in clinical practice. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRY: NCT02728973; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02728973?term=NCT02728973&draw=2&rank=1.