Recovery after nasal surgery vs. tonsillectomy: discriminant validation of the Postoperative Quality of Recovery Scale

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Initial validation and feasibility of the Post-Operative Quality of Recovery Scale (PQRS) was published in 2010. Ongoing validation includes studies to determine whether this scale can discriminate differences in recovery in similar patients having different surgery. METHODS: A prospective observational study included 89 patients undergoing nasal surgery and 46 patients undergoing tonsillectomy as the primary surgical procedure. Patients were assessed using the PQRS. Assessments were performed pre-surgery, at 15 and 40 min, 1 and 3 days, and 3 months after surgery. RESULTS: Tonsillectomy patients were younger [25.0 standard deviation (SD) 17.8 vs. 32.1 SD 18.0 years, P = 0.031] and had shorter anaesthesia duration (29.5 SD 12.6 vs. 42.7 SD 15.8 min, P < 0.01). Tonsillectomy patients had worse recovery in the nociceptive (pain and nausea; P < 0.001), activities of daily living (P < 0.001) and overall recovery (P = 0.025) domains, but were not different in the cognitive, emotive (depression and anxiety) or physiological recovery domains. Complete satisfaction was lower for tonsillectomy (P < 0.001). At 3 months, there was equivalence between groups in all assessments. CONCLUSION: The study shows the ability of the PQRS to discriminate recovery in different domains. Tonsillectomy has a worse recovery profile over the first 3 days in nociceptive, activities of daily living and overall recovery, which is associated with poorer satisfaction than nasal surgery.