Abstract
Purpose: The study was conducted according to a description and regression model in order to study the causes of the pain that occurs in a wound.
Methods: The universe and the sample of the study were comprised of 263 patients who were at or above 18 years of age and who agreed to take part in the study out of 752 patients that presented to the outpatient clinic for Plastic Surgery at the University Hospital in the city of Diyarbakır. The data in the study were collected using a ‘sociodemographic characteristics form’ and a ‘structured diagnosis form’. For the analysis of the data, the SPSS 22.0 Statistical package program was utilized. The results were evaluated at a confidence interval of 95% and a significance level of p<0.05.
Findings: The data in this study were obtained from the following individuals: 171 men and 92 women, with the youngest being 18 and the oldest 97 years old.
56 patients had a chronic disease. 69.9% of the wounds examined were characterized as acute. The most frequent reason for the wound was surgery (39.9%), the most frequent wound type was that in a granulating tissue (45.5%), and in terms of the types of exudate, serosanguinous and purulent structures were more common (32.6%). It was observed that the wet-to-dry dressing method was the most frequently used dressing method with a rate of 82.5%. In terms of wound site, it was seen that 41.5% of the wounds were in the upper extremity. Among the patients with wounds, 95.1% of the patients (250) reported that they experience pain due to their wounds. Out of those patients, 29 reported that the pain started during the application of dressing. It was reported by 175 patients (28%) that the cleaning procedure increased the pain during the application of dressing and 153 patients (44.1%) reported that having short resting breaks alleviated the pain. When we evaluated the severity of pain that occurred during the application of the dressing, it was determined that 61.6% of patients (154) reported mild pain before the process, 32% of patients (80) reported severe pain during the process, and 44.4% of the patients (111) reported disturbing pain after the process.
Result: Based on these study results, it is possible to conclude that wrong wound management and dressing selection are among the reasons for pain that occurs during the dressing application. We suggest that the healthcare professionals who apply wound care may not be aware of/do not care about the stress that may occur due to dressing pain and the consequent disruption in wound care as well as any problems that may emerge during the wound healing process. It is recommended that the healthcare professionals participate in the required trainings, pay attention to the requests from patients, stay in contact with the patients to best decrease their stress levels, and provide the required care to minimize pain.
