Inpatient postoperative undesirable side effects of analgesics management: a pediatric patients and parental perspective

INTRODUCTION: The use of analgesics for the treatment of post-operative pain is common, however, such medications are known to have potential side effects. These undesirable secondary effects can have an important impact on patients and impede their recovery. OBJECTIVES: A review of the literature was conducted in order to gain a better understanding of the challenges confronted by pediatric patients in the acute post-operative period in terms of the side effects of analgesics. METHODS: An online search of keywords (pediatric, analgesic, pain medication, side effects, adverse effects, nausea and vomiting, post-operative, post-discharge, self-care, self-management, management, self-care strategies, patient expectations, patient concerns and education) using PubMed, Medline and Scopus databases, and using the snowballing method of reference tracking was conducted. RESULTS: A total of 10 studies (N = 10, 871 participants) published between 1990 and 2019 were reviewed. Common side effects experienced by patients were nausea, vomiting, and pruritus. Patients' parents reported having many concerns about analgesic use and reported a lack of knowledge on pain medications and side-effect management. CONCLUSION: Areas of improvement in clinical practice include providing the patient and their parents with more information about the post-operative period, analgesic use, and side effects as well as prescribing appropriate treatments to alleviate side effects. This review reveals a lack of qualitative data on pain management and related undesired side effects in pediatric patients having undergone inpatient surgery in addition to the consequences on patients' daily living and on the self-care strategies they engage in to attenuate such effects.