Post-operative pain management in head and neck cancer patients: predictive factors and efficacy of therapy.

Post-operative pain management in head and neck cancer patients: predictive factors and efficacy of therapy. Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital. 2016 Apr;36(2):91-96 Authors: Bianchini C, Malagò M, Crema L, Aimoni C, Matarazzo T, Bortolazzi S, Ciorba A, Pelucchi S, Pastore A Abstract There is increasing interest about all aspects of pain sensation for patients undergoing head and neck surgery, and efforts have been made to better assess, monitor and reduce the occurrence of pain. The aetiology of pain is considered to be "multifactorial", as it is defined by several features such as personal experience, quality perception, location, intensity and emotional impact. The aim of this paper is: (i) to evaluate the efficacy of analgesic treatment in patients with head and neck cancer treated by surgery, and (ii) to study the variables and predictive factors that can influence the occurrence of pain. A total of 164 patients, affected by head and neck cancer and surgically treated, between December 2009 and December 2013, were included in this study. Data collected include age, gender, assessment of anaesthetic risk, tumour localisation, pathological cancer stage, TNM stage, type of surgery performed, complexity and duration of surgery, post-operative complications, postoperative days of hospital stay and pain evaluation on days 0, 1, 3 and 5 post-surgery. We studied the appropriateness of analgesic therapy in terms of incidence and prevalence of p...
Source: Acta Otorhinolaryngologica Italica - Category: ENT & OMF Tags: Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital Source Type: research