The Effect of Preoperative Pain Fear on Postoperative Pain, Analgesic Use, and Comfort Level.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative assessment of pain fear could provide essential information for improving perioperative care and could be the first step toward targeted pain management. AIMS: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of preoperative pain fear on postoperative pain, analgesic use, and comfort level. METHOD: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 201 patients in the general surgery service between January 2022 and March 2022. A sociodemographic questionnaire, Visual Analog Scale (VAS), pain fear, and general comfort scales were used for data collection. Correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between scales, and p < .05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The mean age of the individuals participating in the study was 51.22±15.89 and 69.2% of them were women. The average score of pain fear was 63.77±21.47, and the average score of the VAS was 7.63±1.82 after the surgery before analgesics and 5.06±1.58 six hours after surgery. The mean comfort level was 132.88±9.26. A significant and positive correlation was detected between the total pain fear and the VAS score, analgesic use, and comfort level (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: In this research, findings demonstrated that as the patients' pain fear increased, postoperative pain severity and amount of analgesia increased. Providing pain management with analgesics increases comfort in patients, but it may cause secondary problems in patients who use high-dose analgesics. Therefore, reducing pain fear, which is one of the main factors in pain, is essential in pain management.