Predicting Pain After Ambulatory Gynaecological Laparoscopies

As day surgery is increasingly preferred over in-hospital treatment due to feasibility and reduced economic costs, it is important to evaluate patient-related outcomes such as comfort and safety after discharge. Most previous studies on predictors for postoperative pain have not focused on postdischarge pain. In a previous study, we found that over 42% of the patients experienced severe postdischarge pain within the first 24 h after ambulatory gynaecologocal laparoscopic surgery, that is a pain score of 7-10 on the NRS. We identified four preoperative risk factors independently associated with severe postdischarge pain. We have developed a risk matrix to predict who will suffer from severe pain after surgery. The risk matrix needs to be validated in a new gynaecological patient sample. It has the potential to improve clinical practice by providing clinicians with a simple, evidence-based tool that can identify high-risk patients before surgery. The scoring takes less than one minute. Today, we do not have such an instrument at hand. The results from this project could influence current routines and treatments at Oslo University Hospital and may also apply to other patient populations and other hospitals. The primary research objective is to validate a previously developed risk matrix for postdischarge pain in gynecological day-surgery patients.