La satisfaction des patients vis-à-vis de la prise en charge de leur douleur postopératoire (DPO) n’est pas toujours corrélée au niveau de soulagement de cette douleur.

Évaluer le pourcentage de patients satisfaits à l’égard du personnel infirmier, des chirurgiens et des anesthésistes dans les 48 heures postopératoires et les raisons d’une éventuelle insatisfaction.

Enquête prospective, par un questionnaire anonyme standardisé, menée dans les 48heures postopératoires, auprès de 15 patients tirés au sort dans chacun des six services de chirurgie de notre CHU.

Parmi les 92 patients ayant accepté de participer à l’enquête, 5 % n’étaient pas satisfaits des infirmiers et 15 % n’étaient pas satisfaits des chirurgiens ou des médecins anesthésistes dans la gestion de la DPO. Parmi les principales causes d’insatisfaction, les patients déploraient le désintérêt des chirurgiens vis-à-vis de la DPO et pour les médecins anesthésistes, l’absence de visite postopératoire.

Il paraît souhaitable d’informer les patients en consultation d’anesthésie de l’absence de visite postopératoire systématique, mais de la disponibilité des médecins anesthésistes en cas de difficulté de prise en charge de la DPO. La création d’une équipe mobile DPO est aussi une voie de réflexion.

Patient satisfaction regarding postoperative pain management (POPM) is not always correlated with pain level relief.

To evaluate the percentage of satisfied patients while splitting satisfaction related with nurses, anaesthesiologists and surgeons during 48h postoperative period.

The study was performed in 2007 by two investigators in six different surgical suites in a university hospital. Approximatively 15 patients have been randomly selected in each surgical ward. Each patient received during the first or second postoperative day an anonymous questionnaire and was required to complete it with the investigator assistance if necessary. Questions requiring a yes-or-no reply assessed the patient’s satisfaction with POPM performed by nurses, surgeons, and anaesthesiologists. In case of dissatisfaction, patients were invited to explain the reasons.

Ninety-two patients were included, 5% of the patients were not satisfied with nurse POPM and nearly 15% were not satisfied with anaesthesiologist or surgeon POPM. The main reasons of dissatisfaction with nurses were the excessive delays between requesting and receiving an analgesic and because of the significant discrepancies in POPM between nurses. Patient discontent regarding surgeons was explained by the lack of interest of the latter for POPM. Patient discontent regarding anaesthesiologists was explained by the lack of anaesthesiologist visit in the postoperative period.

There is a relationship between patient dissatisfaction and the lack of attention for POPM by surgeons and the lack of postoperative visit by the anaesthesiologist. A postoperative visit by a team of anaesthesia nurses should improve patient satisfaction with POPM.