General anesthesia is predictive for occurrence of postoperative pain

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pain is one of the most frequent complications in the post- anesthetic care unit. Knowing the risk variables is one strategy for its prevention. The objective of the present study was to identify the predictive variables for pain in the post anesthetic care unit, regardless of its intensity. METHODS: This was an observational and cross-sectional study with primary data with 98 adults submitted to elective surgery. The pain was assessed using a numerical scale. The patients were divided into two groups: the presence or absence of pain. Also, pre, intra, and postoperative information were gathered. Descriptive, comparative analysis between groups and logistic regression were conducted. RESULTS: Pain in the post anesthetic care unit was mentioned by 34.7% of the sample, classified as severe by the majority (61.8%). A significant statistical relationship was found between the presence of pain, regardless of intensity, and two preoperative variables, nine intraoperative variables, and four postoperative variables, namely: female sex; general surgery specialty; supine position; general anesthesia; greater use of intravenous opioids and lower use of intrathecal morphine in the intraoperative period; time in surgery greater than 120 minutes; and oxygen desaturation in the postoperative period. The regression analysis revealed that general anesthesia increased the probability of pain in the post anesthetic care unit by 9.5 times. CONCLUSION: General anesthesia was identified as predictive of pain in the post-anesthetic care unit, indicating the profile of patients at higher risk.