The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and severity of children's
pain at home following (adeno)
tonsillectomies. The subjects were parents of 161 children (86 boys, 75 girls) undergoing myringotomies,
adenoidectomies and (adeno)
tonsillectomies. The mean age of the children was 5.5 years (SD=2.4; range 1-14). Parents were asked to assess the child's average
pain on the day of operation and 7 days after the operation, using a 100 mm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Parents from (adeno)
tonsillectomy patients were also interviewed by phone on day 7.The mean VAS
pain intensity scores by period (day of operation until 7th day after operation) differed between the myringotomy (3.2),
adenoidectomy (10.6), and (adeno)
tonsillectomy (22.1) group (F(2,133)=31.65; p<0.001). The VAS ratings were highest for the
tonsillectomy group (p<0.001). There was a trend that
pain intensity scores for
adenoidectomies were significantly higher than scores for myringotomies (p=0.07). In the interviews, 81% of the parents stated that their child suffered
pain at home. However, this was not necessarily a reason to administer an
analgesic. Furthermore, parents reported
pain-related problems like problems regarding eating, fluid intake,
vomiting and sleep disturbance. Finally, 67% of the children at home recalled severe
pain experience in the hospital. It was concluded that especially following (adeno)
tonsillectomies children suffer clinically significant
pain at home and that the management of
pain and related problems needs to be clearly improved.