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Pain Management 2016
October 03-04, 2016
Volume 5, Issue 5(Suppl) J Pain Relief
ISSN: 2167-0846 JPAR, an open access journal
conferenceseries .com
October 03-04, 2016 Vancouver, Canada
International Conference on
Pain Research & Management
Anna-Clara Rullander, J Pain Relief 2016, 5:5(Suppl)
Adolescent’s experiences of undergoing scoliosis surgery: Psychological aspects and patterns of pain
Anna-Clara Rullander
Umeå University, Sweden
S coliosis surgery is one of the most extensive elective pediatric surgical procedures performed today. The surgery is known to
cause severe and excruciating pain and requires advanced pain management and nursing skills. Until now, scoliosis surgery
has mainly been studied in terms of corrective surgical outcomes, techniques for surgery and pain management. Adolescents’
narratives and experiences of recovery after scoliosis surgery, as well as psychological aspects in correlation to postoperative
pain have seldom been studied. In four studies with qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approach it has been shown
that adolescent patients are experiencing high levels of stress before surgery and severe postoperative pain. Preoperative stress
showed to correlate significantly with postoperative pain, and postoperative pain showed to correlate with levels of stress six
months after surgery. During recovery they have to struggle with persistent pain, constipation, nausea, lack of energy, loss of
control over the body and they have to struggle back to the normal life. Nightmares concerning the perioperative experiences
were appearing up to two years after surgery and some of the studied adolescents showed post-traumatic stress symptoms.
With targeted interventions aiming at identifying levels of preoperative stress, promotion of coping techniques, improved
postoperative pain management and active nursing follow up after hospital discharge it is possible to improve perioperative
care among adolescents going through scoliosis surgery.
Biography
Anna-Clara Rullander has completed her PhD from Umeå University in Sweden, and defended her thesis in December 2015. She is now planning to pursue her
Post-doctoral studies in the area of Scoliosis Surgery and Interventions aimed at Optimizing Perioperative Care. She has published four articles and presented her
research at five international conferences.