Effective Post-operative Pain Control Reduces Hospital Days

Filed in archive Studies , Treatment on April 4, 2007

Less stay in hospitals after surgery will not only reduce the patient's incurred bill but will also reduce the risk of exposure to hospital-acquired infection and associated complications.

Besides, who would want to stay longer in the hospital? Aside from the ambiance being generally depressive (however, 5 star-hotel-like your hospital is, don't you find it depressing?!), I most especially hate doctors and nurses making rounds on unholy hours when you just would like to go to sleep peacefully.

Well, the longest time I ever spent in the hospital was for three nights after my C-section surgery. The moment I was lucid post-op, I actually wanted to get up, go home and rest in my own bed at home. But of course, that wasn't possible, especially after a major surgery.

Anyway, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine research found that a good post-operative pain management will surely lessen your hospital days among other things.

According to Jacques E. Chelly, M.D., Ph.D., professor and vice chairman of the department of anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine:

Before the introduction of the acute interventional postoperative pain service, postoperative pain was managed by surgeons and mostly limited. Morphine and PCA (patient-controlled analgesia) were used. Now, we can do a peripheral nerve block and use other medications, making postoperative pain control more effective."

The study found that the use of the acute interventional postoperative pain service allowed patients to recover faster, and were discharged from the hospital an average of 0.675 days per patient earlier, for a total of 597.7 days of hospitalization saved per year.

Read the full report.