The experience of postoperative pain is able to delay the healing process and to influence the patient satisfaction in an definitive way. The latter is a essential component of the quality of the results concerning the medical treatment in hospitals. In a sample, 251 patients were asked about their postoperative experiences with regard to the education about the possibility of a postoperative pain therapy, the effectiveness and the side effects as well as about their satisfaction with the postoperative pain therapy. The acute pain service (APS) looked after 62% of the asked patients to carry out a patient controlled analgesia (PCA, 84%) or a epidural analgesia (EDA, 16 %). The postoperative pain therapy for 38% of the asked patients (68% parenteral, 12% oral, 15% rectal, 5% no pain therapy) was carried out by the medical staff and the nursing staff of general wards. The postoperative pain was always or almost always bearable for 75% of the asked patients, often bearable for 13 % of the asked patients and sometimes or never bearable for 12 % of the asked patients. The patients, looked after by the APS, stated more often always or almost always bearable pain (80 % APS, 67 % non APS) and more rarely only sometimes or never bearable pain (7 % APS, 21% non APS). Asked about the side effects, 30 % of the asked patients complained about sedation, 26 % about nausea/vomiting and 14 % about paresthesia in the legs. 94 % of the patients were satisfied with the pain therapy (97 % APS, 89 % non APS). Especially the information about the postoperative pain therapy must be improved. Only 53 % of the patients were educated in advance of a operation by a physician. |