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Pain control during, after surgery of utmost importance to staff as well as patientsWhen preparing for surgery, one of the biggest concerns for patients is how much pain they will feel during recovery. From those who fear that pain will limit their independence to those who just plain fear pain, it can be a major factor in many surgeries. Patients may rest assured that pain control is also of utmost importance for the surgeon performing the procedure and the anesthetist administering anesthesia. Not only is it key to keeping the patient comfortable, but effectively controlling pain is an essential step towards a quicker recovery. When the pain is effectively controlled, the patient is able to begin rehabilitation of the affected area more quickly. “Controlling pain has been an age-old quest. People first relied on local plants and herbs which were the mainstay of pain relief for thousands of years,” said New Ulm Medical Center Certified Nurse Anesthetist Chris Pippert. “Since the early 1800’s there have been marked and amazing advances in anesthesia and the tools we use to deal with pain. “One of the more recent advances in technique has been the use of continuous nerve blocks. With this technique, the local anesthetic is given continuously through a very small catheter to the specific part of the body where we need the pain relief,” Pippert said. “It can help reduce the need for oral and IV pain medications and therefore can help reduce unwanted side effects of these medications.” If you are a person who has a low tolerance for pain, Pippert said, be sure to talk to your surgeon and anesthetist prior to surgery. “If you have had prior experience with pain control during or after surgery, discuss with them what medication worked and what didn’t,” Pippert said. “Being able to preemptively control the pain is easier than trying to treat it after it has taken hold.” “In order for staff to successfully care for a patient, we need the patient to be actively communicating with us in respect to how they are feeling,” Pippert said. “Our hospital staff is very well trained to periodically determine the patient’s pain level and treat it appropriately.” As part of that focus, hospitals nation-wide now use some version of visual, verbal or numerical pain scale. NUMC uses a pain scale that is a combination of all three (visual, verbal and numerical) – the scale goes from zero to 10, with zero being no pain and 10 being “Worst Possible Pain.” Immediately following surgery and in the hours (or days, if the patient is admitted to the hospital), staff use the scale frequently to assess the patient’s pain level. “The pain scale is really a great tool that brings together the involvement of the patient and the expertise of the staff in controlling pain as well as possible,” Pippert said. “What it all comes down to is we give our patients the best care that we are able to,” Pippert said. “Part of that care is advances – like the continuous nerve blocks – that help us help our patients.” |
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New Ulm Medical Center
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