Jayachandran C.G.1 , Sanjay Sahadevan2 , Sandhya M.S.3
BACKGROUND Day-care procedures have become accepted and popular among the surgeons and anaesthesiologists all over the world in recent times especially for ENT surgeries. The economic and financial implications are making them acceptable among the general population also. Alleviating acute pain during immediate postoperative period plays a crucial role in deciding the fitness for discharge of the patient. We wanted to evaluate the pain intensity and observe the role of analgesia in its alleviation in postoperative period following day-care ENT surgeries. METHODS 96 adult patients undergoing various types of day-care surgeries in the department of ENT were included in this study. The pain scores were measured using Verbal Pain Intensity Score (VPIS) at frequent two hourly intervals. Opioids, and Paracetamol were used as analgesics. Antiemetic Ondansetron was used to combat nausea and vomiting. The effect of analgesics was assessed using mean values and Friedman test for repeated measures. RESULTS Out of 96 patients 55 (57.29 %) were males and 41 (42.70 %) were females with a male to female ratio of 1.4:1. The mean age was 31.50 ± 4.15 years. 32 / 96 (33.33 %) ear surgeries, 26 / 96 (27.08 %) nose surgeries, 22 / 96 (22.91 %) throat surgeries and 16 / 96 (16.66 %) head and neck surgeries were performed. Moderate to extremely intense grade pain was noticed in 75 / 93 (80.64 %) patients. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of moderate to extremely intense acute postoperative pain in 75 / 93 (80.64 %) patients was high. But the analgesics prescribed were effective to control the pain and the mean pain intensity was less than 2 in 14 hours, hence 85 / 96 (88.54 %) patients could be discharged in time. The associated symptoms were managed with supportive care and required no additional medications and these patients were discharged after overnight stay.
