A Clinical Nursing Bedside Test for Prediction of Postoperative Pain: Assessment of Pain Induced by Peripheral Venous Cannulation

Purpose Postoperative pain is common and difficult to predict. This study aimed to investigate whether peripheral venous cannulation pain (PVCP) scored as ≤2 or >2 on the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) can be used to predict the risk of postoperative pain, opioid consumption, and length of stay in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU).Design Prospective observational study.Methods Patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy at two county hospitals in Sweden reported PVCP preoperatively and pain intensity postoperatively in the PACU using the NRS. Opioid consumption in morphine milligram equivalents (MME) and length of stay in the PACU in minutes (min) were registered as additional proxy measures for the clinical impact of postoperative pain.Results A total of 258 patients were included. PVCP reported as NRS > 2 was a significant predictor of postoperative maximum pain intensity reported as NRS ≥ 3 (OR 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.15-3.51, p = .015). Patients reporting PVCP as NRS >2 had a significantly longer stay in the PACU (114 minutes vs. 144 minutes, p = .002). There were no differences between the groups concerning opioid consumption in the PACU (7.6 MME vs. 7.4 MME, p = .857).Conclusions PVCP is an easily performed clinical bedside test for identifying individuals at risk of moderate-to-severe postoperative pain and a prolonged stay in the PACU.Clinical implications PVCP can be used to identify patients who require an adjusted perioperative pain management regimen.