Background: Tonsillectomy leads to strong postoperative pain. Pain management often is not optimal after tonsillectomy. To date, there exists no clear guideline for pain management after tonsillectomy.
Methods: In a prospective study 65 tonsillectomy patients were examined at the first postoperative day within the QUIPS project. This allowed a standardised assessment of patients' characteristics, pain parameters, outcome and process parameters. The influence of these parameters on the patients' postoperative pain was estimated with univariate and multivariate statistic analysis.
Results: All patients report of constant slight pain during the first postoperative day after tonsillectomy. Although maximal pain intensity was moderate, overall, patients were satisfied with the pain management. Pain management did not result in relevant side effects. Younger patients suffered significantly more from maximal pain than older patients. The same was obvious for patients who needed pain killers already prior to surgery. Perioperative antibiotic treatment and specific counselling about the possibilities of postoperative pain management reduced pain intensity highly significant in univariate and multivariate analysis. Patients receiving opioids on the ward postoperatively had significantly less pain.
Discussion: QUIPS is a very good tool to evaluate the quality of postoperative pain management in one's own hospital. Next step, a detailed comparison to the best practise of other hospitals participating at QUIPS will follow in order to improve and standardize pain management for adult tonsillectomy patients.
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.