Background and Importance Inadequately treated postoperative pain can compromise the patient‘s recovery, prolong hospital stay and contribute to chronic pain. In our hospital there are only some surgical services with analgesia protocols. For this reason, it’s proposed a study of post-surgical pain treatment.

Aim and Objectives Descriptive study of the management of acute postoperative pain in hospitalised patients after scheduled surgery and the degree of adherence to the analgesia protocols available in the hospital.

Material and Methods Retrospective observational study of hospitalised adults for scheduled surgery during November 2022. Data collection was carried out through the clinical history and Hospiwin2000® electronic prescription program. The collected variables were sex, age, prescribed analgesic regimen, usance or not of analgesia protocol and pain registration according to the numerical scale (NS). The NS classifies types of pain into three ranges: NS 1–3 mild pain, NS 4–6 moderate pain, NS 7–9 severe pain.

Results 125 patients were considered (49.6% male; 50.4% female). Of which the mean age was 57 years (19–89). Out of the 125 cases, there were 22 different analgesia regimens.

The most frequently used intravenous analgesia treatment was dexketoprofen 50 mg/8h + acetaminophen 1 g/8h (19.2%); followed by dexketoprofen 50 mg/8h + acetaminophen 1 g/6h (17.6%). Overall, in only 59% of the cases the prescription of analgesia corresponded to the available protocols in the electronic prescription program. Pain level was recorded in 69% of the patients. All those patients in whom the NS was collected presented different range of pain during the hospital stay: 5% recorded severe pain; 29% moderate pain; and 66% mild pain. 43 prescriptions were detected that did not comply with the technical data sheet recommendations for intravenous analgesic drugs (Metamizole dose > 5 g/day, dexketoprofen > 48 hours).

Conclusion and Relevance A high prevalence of patients with pain and high variability of non-protocolised analgesic guidelines, and even with doses not included in the technical data sheet of the analgesic drugs, were detected.

The analysis of the current situation in our hospital is the starting point for reviewing the existing protocols and developing new ones that unify and optimise the analgesia prescription guidelines.

Conflict of Interest No conflict of interest.