This study will be a randomized control trial providing an educational component to study participants and a pre-operative and post-operative survey with a goal to show an improvement in pain control, decrease in narcotic use, and increase in patient knowledge in the study group.
The use of opioid pain medications in surgical patients is contributing to an epidemic of opioid pain medication use. It is known that the quality of pain control after surgery is a large factor of the patient's perception of their experience. However, little research has been done to improve pain control in plastic surgery patients. To the investigators knowledge, no study has yet looked at education of breast surgery patients to improve pain experience. The study goal is to survey breast surgery patients in the Plastic Surgery department before and after surgery to evaluate the participants experience with pain and pain medications. Half of the participants in the study will be randomized to receive an information sheet about pain control at the participants pre-operative appointment.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
100
The handout was single-paged (front and back), and was titled Pain After Surgery: What to Expect. The handout starts with information on rating pain and expectations for control of pain, not complete absence of pain, after surgery. Mutli-modal approach to pain control is then discussed, including pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic methods that may be used for pain control by the perioperative team and postoperatively.
Standard patient counseling
University of Kansas Medical Center
Kansas City, Kansas, United States
Opioid consumption
Opioid consumption will be calculated from patient report of remaining narcotics at the postoperative appointment and the total opioid amount prescribed, from the medical record.
Time frame: 1-2 weeks
Pain control: survey
Patient report of subjective and objective pain control after surgery will be collected on a postoperative survey. Objective pain control will be scored by asking patients to circle a pain score on a scale of 0 to 10. This is a continuous scale used to score pain with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain. Subjective pain will be rated by asking participants to state yes or no for control of pain and state yes or no if pain interfered with walking, sleeping, and activities of daily living.
Time frame: 1-2 weeks
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