Children's Pain at Home After Laparoscopic Appendectomy.
Pain Manag Nurs
; 22(5): 623-630, 2021 Oct.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33744106
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Hospitalized children experience moderate-to-severe pain after laparoscopic appendectomy, but knowledge of children's pain experiences after discharge home is limited. Accurate pain assessments are needed to guide appropriate pain treatment.AIMS:
To describe children's pain at home after laparoscopic appendectomy.DESIGN:
Prospective exploratory and descriptiveMETHODS:
A convenience sample of 100 patients, aged 10-17 years, who spoke or wrote in English or Spanish, volunteered to complete 14-day pain diaries at home after laparoscopic appendectomy. Visual analytic techniques were used to analyze patterns of pain experiences.RESULTS:
Diaries were returned by 45 patients/parents, the majority of whom were White (64%), male (56%), adolescents (mean age 14 years) with no previous surgical history (70%), and whose appendix was inflamed (87%) but not perforated. More than 50% reported severe pain (4 or 5 on a 0-5 scale) on the first full day home after laparoscopic appendectomy. On day 7, 40% reported pain and on day 14, 16% were still reporting pain. Only rarely were pain scores not clinically significantly lower 1 hour after pain treatment, regardless of treatment type (e.g., nondrug, nonopioid, opioid). Reported pain intensity steadily decreased over time as did frequency of recorded pain scores.CONCLUSION:
Adolescents experience severe pain at home after laparoscopic appendectomy and some experience pain for 7 to 14 days after hospital discharge. Visual analytics better represent the dynamics of pain experiences than measures of central tendency.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Appendicitis
/
Laparoscopy
Type of study:
Observational_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Pain Manag Nurs
Journal subject:
ENFERMAGEM
/
NEUROLOGIA
/
PSICOFISIOLOGIA
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article