ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Pain after laparoscopic surgery can be divided into three components: incisional or superficial wound pain, deep intra-abdominal pain and referred shoulder pain. Better understanding and adequate assessment of post-operative pain may be an important clue to the optimisation of recovery after laparoscopic surgery. Therefore, we performed a components of pain assessment after laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. METHODS: Twenty patients who underwent a laparoscopic donor nephrectomy were included in this prospective study. Pain was subdivided into three components: superficial wound pain, deep intra-abdominal pain and referred shoulder pain, and for each component a numeric rating scale (from 0 to 10) was obtained at 1, 24 and 48 h after surgery. RESULTS: Repeated measurements analysis of variance showed that during the first 48 h after surgery, the superficial wound and deep intra-abdominal pain components were significantly higher as compared with the referred shoulder pain component. Although the deep intra-abdominal pain component was slightly higher as compared with superficial wound pain, this difference was not significant (P = 0.097). Further assessment of superficial wound pain showed that the Pfannenstiel incision was the most significant determinant of this component of pain (P = 0.004), whereas deep intra-abdominal pain was significantly higher at the ipsilateral side of the abdomen (P = 0.015). DISCUSSION: The components of pain assessment revealed that pain related to the Pfannenstiel incision and the deep intra-abdominal pain component are the most important determinants of pain after laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. Further improvement of the management of post-operative pain should focus on these components of pain.
Subject(s)
Laparoscopy/adverse effects , Living Donors , Nephrectomy/adverse effects , Pain Measurement/methods , Pain, Postoperative/diagnosis , Abdominal Pain/diagnosis , Abdominal Pain/etiology , Adult , Analysis of Variance , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Pain, Postoperative/drug therapy , Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting/diagnosis , Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting/therapy , Prospective Studies , Shoulder Pain/diagnosis , Shoulder Pain/etiologyABSTRACT
Nowadays, laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) has become the gold standard to procure live donor kidneys. As the relationship between donor and recipient loosens, it becomes of even greater importance to optimize safety and comfort of the surgical procedure. Low-pressure pneumoperitoneum has been shown to reduce pain scores after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Live kidney donors may also benefit from the use of low pressure during LDN. To evaluate feasibility and efficacy to reduce post-operative pain, we performed a randomized blinded study. Twenty donors were randomly assigned to standard (14 mmHg) or low (7 mmHg) pressure during LDN. One conversion from low to standard pressure was indicated by protocol due to lack of progression. Intention-to-treat analysis showed that low pressure resulted in a significantly longer skin-to-skin time (149 ± 86 vs. 111 ± 19 min), higher urine output during pneumoperitoneum (23 ± 35 vs. 11 ± 20 mL/h), lower cumulative overall pain score after 72 h (9.4 ± 3.2 vs. 13.5 ± 4.5), lower deep intra-abdominal pain score (11 ± 3.3 vs. 7.5 ± 3.1), and a lower cumulative overall referred pain score (1.8 ± 1.9 vs. 4.2 ± 3). Donor serum creatinine levels, complications, and quality of life dimensions were not significantly different. Our data show that low-pressure pneumoperitoneum during LDN is feasible and may contribute to increase live donors' comfort during the early post-operative phase.
