Table 5.

The challenges most often observed or encountered by physicians in postoperative pain relief for patients

Nausea	76.2%
Constipation	67.3%
Vomiting	60.3%
Encouraging mobility during postoperative pain	56.7%
Respiratory depression	49.9%
Hospital discharge delays due to uncontrolled pain	40.5%
Uncontrolled pain that interferes with rehabilitation	35.9%
Postoperative discharge delays in the PACU	33.3%
Titrating patients in a time-efficient manner	30.5%
Educating patients about reporting accurate pain levels	28.5%
Increases in patient anxiety level	26.9%
Inability to sleep well at night	21.6%
Chronic postsurgical pain	19.8%
Hospital readmission due to pain	19.6%
Hospital readmission due to complications from pain management	19.4%
Oral feeding	18.6%
Psychological or depressive symptoms	17.0%
Other challenges	5.6%

Survey question: “what challenges do you most often observe or encounter in post-operative pain relief for your patients? Please select all that apply”

PACU post-anesthesia care unit