Estudio para reducir el dolor posoperatorio en pacientes sometidos a tiroidectomía total o disección cervical por patología tiroidea mediante crioterapia

Abstract

Context: currently, the increasing incidence of thyroid pathology deserves a greater surgical resolution that demands the management of postoperative pain, which also deserve complementary methods or therapies to attenuate pain. Objective: to compare the level of postsurgical pain in patients under total thyroidectomy or cervical dissection, due to benign or malignant thyroid pathology, through the use of cryotherapy compared to traditional methods, in the General Surgery and Oncology Surgery services of the Eugenio Espejo Hospital in Quito. Subjects and methods: epidemiological, observational, cross-sectional, performed in 204 patients under total thyroidectomy or cervical dissection, divided into a group managed with standard analgesic therapy (paracetamol and tramadol) and a control group that received similar pharmacological therapy plus cryotherapy. In both groups the pain scale (VAS) was assessed for 24 hours. Quantitative variables were reported as averages (standard deviation) and qualitative variables with their absolute and relative values (percentages). The comparison of the quantitative variables was carried out after a normality test, while the quantitative variables that met the normality criteria, “t” test was used for independent groups or their non-parametric equivalents. Results: both therapies (cold pack and standard therapy) significantly decrease the perception of pain from its first evaluation (6 hours) until the final evaluation (24 hours) (p <0.0001). Analgesia supplemented with cryotherapy (cold pack) exceeds the standard treatment with analgesics (p <0.0001). For the group treated with cold pack, the decrease in pain was 2 points of VAS (IQR: 1.3 points; p <0.001). Conclusion: the use of combined therapy (standard analgesia plus cryotherapy) reduced pain by two points according to the VAS pain scale, showing that the combined therapy is superior in pain management according to the control group.