SEPTEMBER 15, 2023
Effective postoperative pain management is helped by proactive patients invested in their own recovery, marked by a willingness to communicate openly with their surgical team and stay educated on postoperative recovery and treatment.
As part of Pain Awareness Month, the American College of Surgeons is offering insight into how patients can help improve the chances of a successful recovery, with either mild pain or relief within a few days following surgery.
“Pain can inhibit recovery,
Effective postoperative pain management is helped by proactive patients invested in their own recovery, marked by a willingness to communicate openly with their surgical team and stay educated on postoperative recovery and treatment.
As part of Pain Awareness Month, the American College of Surgeons is offering insight into how patients can help improve the chances of a successful recovery, with either mild pain or relief within a few days following surgery.
“Pain can inhibit recovery, but good pain control can be an accelerator of a patient’s recovery,” said Jonah J. Stulberg, MD, PhD, MPH, FACS, a member of the ACS Patient Education Committee and the vice chair of research for the Department of Surgery at UTHealth Houston, in a press statement.
Stulberg, who has a research interest in pain control, urged that patients discuss their pain with the surgical team prior to the operation.
“Bringing up pain control with your care team before surgery will help you come up with a plan and understand how much pain you can expect to have after surgery. Having these conversations up front can save you a lot of time and a lot of headaches after surgery, and it definitely helps with safety.”
He recommended asking how much pain the patient expects after surgery, as well as the most effective ways to manage it.
Having strong knowledge of the medications and therapies prescribed for postsurgical pain can help reduce the need for opioids. Over-the-counter medications, such as acetaminophen and/or ibuprofen, can be very effective as safer substitutes for opioids for managing pain, Stulberg said. “But these medications also need to be limited in certain instances and should only be used as prescribed.”
Exercise and rehabilitation therapies may be done in conjunction with occupational or physical therapy. “Certain movements will be allowed while others may need to be restricted to allow time for your body to heal,” Stulberg said. “These are conversations you can have with your doctor before surgery to help manage your pain.”
Describing pain can be very challenging because pain is very subjective. Stulberg recommended speaking to the care team about pain as it relates to function. For example, patients should speak up and be as specific as possible if pain is so severe that it’s difficult taking a deep breath, getting out of bed or walking to the bathroom.
Based on a press release from the ACS.
