• Luciano Beltrão Dos Reis Viana, Eduardo José Silva Gomes de Oliveira, Caio Márcio Barros de Oliveira, MouraEd Carlos ReyECR0000-0002-7752-0683Universidade Federal do Maranhão - São Luís (MA), Brazil., Luiz Henrique Lopes Viana, NinaVinícius José da SilvaVJDS0000-0003-3017-7459Universidade Federal do Maranhão - São Luís (MA), Brazil., Emily Farkas, and LealPlinio da CunhaPDC0000-0003-1336-8528Universidade Federal do Maranhão - São Luís (MA), Brazil..
• Universidade Federal do Maranhão - São Luís (MA), Brazil.
• Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2023 Jan 1; 69 (3): 473478473-478.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate postoperative pain and quality of life in patients undergoing median sternotomy.MethodsA cohort study was carried out on a sample of 30 patients who underwent elective cardiac surgery by longitudinal median sternotomy. Patients were interviewed at Intensive Care Unit discharge and hospital discharge, when the Visual Numeric Scale and the Brief Pain Inventory were applied, and 2 weeks after hospital discharge, when the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Bref questionnaire was administered. The normality of the results was analyzed by the Shapiro-Wilk test, and Wilcoxon Rank Sum and McNemar tests were utilized for the analysis of numerical and categorical variables. For correlation between numerical variables, Spearman's linear correlation test was applied. To compare numerical variables, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied. Differences between groups were considered significant when the p-value was <0.05.ResultsBetween Intensive Care Unit and hospital discharge, there was a reduction in median pain intensity assessed by the Visual Numeric Scale from 5.0 to 2.0 (p<0.001), as well as in eight Brief Pain Inventory parameters: worst pain intensity in the last 24 h (p=0.001), analgesic relief (p=0.035), and pain felt right now (p=0.009); and in interference in daily activities (p<0.001), mood (p=0.017), ability to walk (p<0.001), relationship with other people (p=0.005), and sleep (p=0.006). Higher pain intensity at Intensive Care Unit discharge was associated with worse performance in the psychological domain of quality of life at out-of-hospital follow-up.ConclusionProper management of post-sternotomy pain in the Intensive Care Unit may imply better quality of life at out-of-hospital follow-up.

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