Analysis of intensity, sensory and affective aspects of pain of patients in immediate postoperative care.

Objective To evaluate the pain of patients in the immediate postoperative period during admission, an hour after admission, and at discharge of the post-anesthesia care unit in terms of intensity, and sensory and affective aspects. Methods Analytical, cross-sectional study with 336 patients. Data were collected using a sociodemographic and clinical form, the Numeric Pain Rating Scale, and the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire. Data collection occurred from September to October 2015 at the post-anesthesia care unit of a general hospital in the north-west of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The significance level of the descriptive and statistical analyses was set at p<0.05. Results According to the data, 57.3% of the patients did not report pain and 47% felt pain from admission to discharge. Patients submitted to cancer and trauma surgeries reported more pain (p<0.01). At admission and maintenance, there was a prevalence of moderate and intense pain, and at discharge, a predominance of mild and moderate pain. Conclusions The results showed a high percentage of patients with pain in the immediate postoperative period from admission to discharge. These findings can encourage researchers and health workers to conduct further investigations with the larger number of patients to allow for inferences.