This study was designed to characterize postcesarean pain and examine its relationship with surgical anesthesia. Pain intensity was measured using a 0 to 10 numerical rating scale. The Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire was used to measure quality. The most common pain types reported were movement-associated and constant incisional pain (100% of subjects), gas pain (88.1%), and uterine contraction pain (83.3%). Each pain type differed in its intensity, duration and quality. Movement-associated incisional pain was the most intense and long-lasting pain type reported. On postoperative days 2 to 4, mothers who received complete epidural anesthesia during surgery reported less intense movement-associated incisional pain than those who received general or incomplete epidural anesthesia. However, statistical significance was not often obtained. These findings demonstrate the uniqueness of each pain type composing the postcesarean pain experience. The clinical data also support the hypothesis that epidural anesthesia diminishes the sustained hyperexcitability of the central nervous system caused by surgery.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.61298 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Yale, Ninon |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (School of Nursing.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001307908, proquestno: AAIMM80298, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0014 seconds