Proportion of immediate severe postoperative pain in laparoscopic sterilization under general anaesthesia: A cross-sectional study (postoperative pain in laparoscopic sterilization)

Abstract

Background: Effective control of immediate post operative abdominal pain following laparoscopic sterilization is challenging. The objective of the study was to estimate the incidence of immediate severe postoperative pain following laparoscopic sterilization under general anaesthesia by the proportion of patients with the pain assessed on a numerical rating scale. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted with the approval of institutional review board and ethics committee. Fifty seven participants with written informed consent underwent the study over a period of six months. Pain was assessed by a trained recovery nurse and data was collected and analyzed. The main outcome measure was immediate severe post operative pain on numerical rating scale (NRS). Results: Among the 57 participants, 14 (24.6%) had immediate severe post operative pain with median score of five in the inter quartile range of 0 to 5.75 and 43 (75.4%) participants had no severe pain. Conclusion: The incidence of immediate severe postoperative abdominal pain after laparoscopic sterilization under general anaesthesia is high. Therefore, the management of pain following laparoscopic sterilization requires individually based multimodal analgesia.

Keywords

• acute pain
• laparoscopic sterilization
• analgesics