Time-effectiveness analysis of patient-controlled analgesia in post-operative pain

Objective To evaluate the applied condition and analgesic effectiveness of patient- controlled analgesia(PCA)in post-operative pain in Hunan provincial grade hospital,and to provide refer- ences for medical staff adopting PCA.Methods Forty-two patients undergoing open operation were select- (?)randomly,and divided into 3 groups according to the different types of post-operative pain management. Group 1 was the control group which was given no pain management,Group 2 was the PCA 24 h group used PCA for 24 h,Group 3 was the PCA 48 h group used PCA for 48 h.Numerical rating scale 11(NRS-11) was used to assess the intensity of patients' pain and repeated measures analysis of variance method was used to analyze the post-operative pain score at 0,1,2,4,6,8,12,24,36,48,72 hours by non-anesthesiol- ogists.Results There was a significant difference in pain intensity among the three groups during the first day(P0.05).By comparison of each two,there was a significant reduction in pain intensity of Group 2 and Group 3 than that in Group 1(P0.05),but there was no significant difference in pain intensity be- tween Group 2 and Group 3(P0.05).There was no significant difference in pain intensity among the three groups during the second and third day(P0.05).And the post-operative pain scores of each group dropped to about 2 at 72 h equally.Conclusion PCA is effective for post-operative pain control in the first day.However,it is more suitable to use PCA for 24 h than for 48 h to control post-operative pain.