Pain score and other factors affecting the postoperative discharge time of patients who underwent lung resection: a retrospective study

Aim: Many factors affect the hospitalization period of patients after surgery. One of the most important of them is postoperative pain. Our study aims to investigate the relationship between the postoperative discharge time and the postoperative 24-hour visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores of patients who underwent thoracotomy and lung resection. Additionally, we also want to identify the parameters that affect the day of discharge, VAS scores, and chest tube removal time of these patients. Material and Method: Data of patients who underwent elective thoracic surgery between February 2021 and August 2021 in a tertiary chest disease and thoracic surgery center were analyzed patients aged between 18 and 75 years, in the ASA I-II-III risk group, with a body mass index (BMI) in the range of 18.5-35 kg/m2, who underwent thoracotomy and resection due to lung malignancy. Following data were extracted co-morbidities, diagnoses, performed surgery, type of surgery, duration of surgery, intraoperative complications, intraoperative blood product transfusion history, postoperative advanced complications, postoperative 24-hour VAS, length of stay, and length of chest tube stay. Results: A total of 104 patients who underwent elective thoracotomy and lung resection under general anesthesia between February 2021 and August 2021 were included in the study. There was a positive and highly statistically significant correlation between discharge time and chest tube removal time (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant correlation between discharge times and VAS scores (p=0.553). Additionally, there was no statistically significant correlation between VAS scores and chest tube removal time. Discharge time had a low positive and statistically significant correlation with age (p=0.027), and with the duration of the operation (p < 0.001). There was a low degree of negative statistically significant correlation between discharge day and BMI (p=0.017). Conclusion: While the prolonged chest tube withdrawal time was directly related to the longer discharge time, the VAS scores have no significant correlation with the discharge time and the chest tube removal time. Additionally, age and operation time were also found to be associated with prolonged discharge time. Prospective comprehensive studies on this subject will be useful in clarifying the factors affecting the discharge time after thoracic surgery.