The effect of pharmacist-initiated perioperative multidisciplinary pharmaceutical care model and clinical pathway on pain management in patients undergoing orthopedic surgery: a before-after study

Background Poor pain control is common in perioperative orthopedic surgeries. However, there is a lack of exploration of the clinical pharmacy practice model for this population. Aim To construct a perioperative pharmaceutical care model and clinical pathway for patients undergoing orthopedic surgeries and evaluate their impact on pain management. Method This historical before-and-after study was conducted in the Department of Orthopedics of a tertiary hospital in Guangdong Province, China. The control group was surgical patients who received routine diagnosis and treatment. The intervention group received pain management from a multidisciplinary team based on a pharmacist-initiated pharmaceutical care practice model and clinical pathways for medication management. The primary outcome measures were postoperative pain at rest (PAR) and movement-evoked pain (MEP) scores, number of breakthrough pains, and length of hospital stay. Results A total of 320 orthopedic surgery patients were included in the study. Among patients with expected moderate or severe postoperative pain (82.5%), significantly lower PAR and MEP scores were observed in the intervention group 24 hours after the operation compared to the control group ( P< 0.05). Compared to the control group, hospital stay in the intervention group was shortened by 2.3 days ( P <0.001). However, there were no significant differences in the control of breakthrough pain and the incidence of adverse drug reactions ( P >0.05). Conclusion Pharmacist-initiated multidisciplinary perioperative pain management practice models and clinical pathways could improve outcome indicators related to pain management and realize the role and value of pharmacists.