Mild, Moderate, and Severe Pain in Patients Recovering from Major Abdominal Surgery

Pain interferes with various activities, such as coughing, deep breathing, and ambulation, designed to promote recovery and prevent complications after surgery. Determining appropriate cutpoints for mild, moderate, and severe pain is important, because specific interventions may be based on this classification. The purpose of this research was to determine optimal cutpoints for postoperative patients based on their worst and average pain during hospitalization and after discharge to home, and whether the optimal cutpoints distinguished patients with mild, moderate, or severe pain regarding patient outcomes. This secondary analysis consisted of 192 postoperative patients aged ≥60 years. Multivariate analyses of variance were used to stratify the sample into mild, moderate, and severe pain groups using eight cutpoint models for worst and average pain in the last 24 hours. One-way analyses of variance were conducted to determine whether patients experiencing mild, moderate, or severe pain were different in outcome. Optimal cutpoints were similar to those previously reported, with the boundary between mild and moderate pain ranging from 3 to 4 and the boundary between moderate and severe pain ranging from 5 to 7. Worst pain cutpoints were most useful in distinguishing patients regarding fatigue, depression, pain's interference with function, and morphine equivalent administered in the previous 24 hours. A substantial proportion of patients experienced moderate to severe pain. The results suggest a narrow boundary between mild and severe pain that interferes with function. The findings indicate that clinicians should seek to aggressively manage postoperative pain ratings greater than 3.