The Effect of Preoperative Psycho- educational Intervention on Postoperative Pain in Children Undergoing Tonsillectomy

Fear of unknowns before a surgery makes children to experience more pain after these procedures. This study was performed to examine the effect of preoperative psycho- educational interventions on postoperative pain and return to normal life in children undergoing tonsillectomy in Shiraz city. It was a quasi- experimental study. Convenience- systematic sampling was used to recruit 199, 9 - 12 years old children admitted for tonsillectomy to Dastgheib hospital in Shiraz city. They were randomly assigned to either experimental (n=100) or control group (n=99). The experimental group received psycho- educational interventions including a 45- minute session. Postoperative pain was assessed by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and return to normal activity was evaluated by a brief questionnaire. Data was analyzed by t-test, Chi-square test and repeated measurements design using SPSS-PC (v. 11). The results revealed that psycho-educational interventions results in rapid return to normal activity in experimental group (p < 0.05) but it has no statistically significant effect on post -operative pain (p= 0.316). The study provided no empirical evidence in support of effectiveness of using psycho- educational interventions for reducing postoperative pain in children but it could be an effective method for rehabilitation of children after tonsillectomy.