Evaluation of Postoperative complaints and satisfaction status of patients after undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy at a teaching hospital of Pakistan

Abstract

This study was performed to evaluate the complaints of patients during first 24 postoperative hours and the satisfaction status of patients after undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) in surgical units of Bahawal Victoria Hospital. Methodologically this prospective cross-sectional study was performed using a structured questionnaire containing 10-items, for a period of 6 months (Nov 2013-Apr 2014). Subjects were selected via convenience sampling technique and IBM SPSS® (v. 21) was used for statistical analysis. In total n=127 patients undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy during this study period. Male to female ratio was 1:3.70. Mean age of patients was 44.49 years (±15. 33). 86.61% patients were below 60 years of age. Every patient was suffering from mean 2.09 complaints. Reported complaints were abdominal pain (32.71%), shoulder pain (24.06%), headache (18.80%) and fatigue (24.40%). A p-value of less than 0.05 was observed for pain complaints between gender variables. Satisfaction scale revealed that 64.6% of patients were satisfied from behavior of health professionals and 75.6% were satisfied with the treatment provided. However, 70.9% patients were unsatisfied from hospital facilities. Though LC is an advanced procedure still numerous patients were suffering from different unprivileged postoperative complaints. In western countries LC is performed as an ambulatory procedure, but still being practiced as an inpatient procedure in Pakistan. More research by multidisciplinary team on multimodal pain management is required for making cost-effective interventions that will decrease pain complaints and escalate the satisfaction status of patients.

Keywords: Cholelithiasis, Laparoscopic, Cholecystectomy, Pain, Shoulder Pain, Postoperative Pain, Patient Satisfaction