An international research group with members from the University of Basel, several EU countries, Israel and the USA, analyzed patient satisfaction with pain treatment after surgery. The study based on an extensive multi-national dataset shows that patients actively involved in their treatment report higher levels of satisfaction. Overall, satisfaction seems to be less associated with actual pain but rather with impressions of improvement. The scientific journal “PAIN†has published the results.
Every year, millions of surgeries are performed. At least half of the patients suffer from moderate to severe pain after surgery. Well managed postoperative pain is thus an important quality criterion for healthcare providers. Even though previous studies have shown that patient ratings of satisfaction with their pain treatment tend to be high, the determinants for this effect are poorly understood and have previously not been studied in large-scale, international datasets.
PAIN OUT registry
For their analysis, the research team led by Dr. Matthias Schwenkglenks from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Medicine used PAIN OUT, an EU-funded, international acute pain registry and research project that collects patient-reported outcome data on day 1 after surgery. Patients use a standardized questionnaire for self-completion. PAIN OUT offers a system for measurement and feedback of outcome quality and supports the process of decision making in order to achieve an optimized treatment of patients.