• T I Usichenko, I Röttenbacher, T Kohlmann, A Jülich, J Lange, A Mustea, G Engel, and M Wendt.
• Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Medicine of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany. taras@uni-greifswald.de
• Br J Anaesth. 2013 Jan 1;110(1):87-95.

BackgroundAn organizational approach is proposed as an immediate solution for improving postoperative pain (POP) management. The aim was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a quality management system (QMS), based on procedure-specific, multimodal analgesic protocols, modified to meet the individual patients' requirements.MethodsPatients from the orthopaedic, gynaecological, visceral, and trauma surgery departments of the university hospital were involved in two prospective surveys. Survey 1 was performed at baseline and survey 2 was performed after the implementation of QMS within an interval of 1 year. The patients were asked to report pain intensity on the visual rating scale, incidence of analgesia-related side-effects, and incidence of pain interference with the items of life quality and their satisfaction with the treatment of POP.ResultsPatients from Survey 2 (n=251) reported 25-30% less pain than those from Survey 1 (n=269) (P<0.0001). Nausea was reported by 40% of the patients from Survey 1 vs 17% from Survey 2, vomiting by 25 vs 11% and fatigue by 76% in Survey 1 vs 30% in Survey 2 (P<0.0001). Life quality and patients' satisfaction improved in Survey 2 vs Survey 1 (P<0.001).ConclusionsThe implementation of QMS allowed the reduction in POP intensity with a simultaneous decrease in analgesia-related side-effects. This has led to an increased quality of life and patient satisfaction.

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