To determine the differences between experience of post-operative pain after craniotomy in emergency versus elective cases.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the differences in post-operative pain experienced by patients undergoing emergency versus elective craniotomies. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: General Hospital, Karachi. Period: January 2017 to December 2019. Material & Methods: We included all the patients who underwent craniotomy at our institute and we measured their pain assessment levels. Further we excluded patients whose data was missing any variable of interest or whose measurements could not be taken at the time they were admitted to the hospital. All the data was analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Results: We included 152 patients in our study population. The mean age of the patients in our study group was 50 years of age and there were 81 males and 71 females included in our study. The combined pain scores for patients undergoing elective and emergency procedures was found to be 5.5 (Standard deviation= 2.6 for day one, 4.8 (Standard deviation= 2.6) for day two and 4.5 (Standard deviation=2.9) for day three post-operation respectively. When analysis was done to compare the differences in the VAS score for patients of the two categories we found no significant difference between the groups for day one having a p value of 0.485, for day two there was no significant difference as well having a p value of 0.957. Conclusion: We did not find any statistical difference in the two groups under study. The postoperative pain experience was similar in patients who underwent elective as compared to emergency craniotomies.