Pain Quality Among Hospitalized Postcraniotomy Brain Tumor Patients

Purpose/Aims The aim of this study was to describe how persons given a diagnosis of a brain tumor who have had a craniotomy describe the quality of their pain after surgery. Design A qualitative descriptive design was used. Methods Qualitative descriptive methods as described by Sandelowski guided this study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with patients hospitalized on a neurological step-down unit in an urban teaching hospital in the Midwestern United States. Interviews focused on the quality of participants' pain after surgery. Narratives were analyzed using standard content analysis. Results Twenty-seven participants were interviewed. Most were White and female. Most underwent a craniotomy using an anterior approach with sedation. Participants described the quality of their pain with 6 different types of descriptors: pain as pressure, pain as tender or sore, pain as stabbing, pain as throbbing, pain as jarring, and pain as itching. Conclusions Participants' descriptions of their pain quality after surgery provide a different understanding than do numerical pain ratings. Clinicians should use questions to explore patients' individual pain experiences, seeking to understand the quality of patients' pain and their perceptions.