Patients' perioperative experiences of an opioid-free versus opioid-based care pathway for laparoscopic bariatric surgery: A qualitative study.

Background

Despite recent evidence supporting the adoption of opioid-free anaesthetic and analgesic alternatives in the perioperative context, opioid-based regimens remain standard of care. There is limited knowledge about the patients' perioperative experiences of bariatric surgery, with no study yet investigating their experiences within an opioid-free care pathway.

Objective

We aimed to describe similarities and differences in patients' perioperative experiences of undergoing bariatric surgery with either an opioid-free or opioid-based care pathway.

Design

A qualitative interview study.

Setting

A strategic sample of patients enrolled in an ongoing randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of opioid-free anaesthesia for bariatric surgery were recruited. In the randomized controlled trial, participants were randomized to either opioid-based anaesthesia or opioid-free anaesthesia, including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation as primary postoperative pain management.

Participants

Twenty patients were interviewed 3 months after surgery: 10 participants in the opioid-free group versus 10 in the opioid-based group.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted between December 2020 and February 2022 and analysed with qualitative content analysis.

Results

The analysis yielded four categories and 12 subcategories. In Category 1, participants shared

Conclusions

We highlighted the overall similarities in perioperative experiences of patients undergoing bariatric surgery. However, the differences in experiences during opioid-free anaesthesia induction need to be addressed in further implementation and research studies investigating strategies to reduce the sense of loss of control. More research is needed to facilitate the implementation of opioid-free treatment strategies into clinical practice and improve the patient care experience.

Informations de copyright

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.