Objectives: Acute Pain Services (APS) are well-established worldwide; however, their availability and use in cardiac surgery units are less widespread and, even where present, may be provided less consistently. The authors undertook this survey to assess the current organization of Cardiac Acute Pain Services (CAPS) in Canada.
Design: This was a prospectively administered survey.
Setting: This study included all centers in Canada that conducted adult cardiac surgery.
Participants: The participants were anesthesiologists.
Intervention: A 20-item questionnaire covered the demographics, functioning and APS structure.
Results: The authors achieved a response rate of 100% with completed questionnaires from all 31 centers. Ten centers (32.3%) stated that they had a dedicated CAPS, 9 centers (29%) stated that they did not have an APS, and 12 centers (38.7%) had APS but no CAPS. At the time of the survey for the 10 centers with CAPS, 3 of the CAPS had a physician-run model, 4 had a combined physician and nurse service, and 1 used a combination of protocols, intensivists, and nurse practitioners. Nine centers had an anesthesiologist assigned to daily acute pain rounds. Only in 2 of 10 centers with CAPS were more than 50% of their cardiac surgery patients receiving care. In general, postoperative pain management was a protocol-driven activity.
Conclusions: CAPS are varied in both structure and functioning. Further work is required both at the institutional and the national levels to improve the postoperative care and the pain-related outcomes of patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
Keywords: Acute Pain Service; cardiac surgery; survey.
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