Assessment of pain and quality of life in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: a cohort study.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate postoperative pain and quality of life in patients undergoing median sternotomy.

Methods: A cohort study was carried out on a sample of 30 patients who underwent elective cardiac surgery by longitudinal median sternotomy. Patients were interviewed at Intensive Care Unit discharge and hospital discharge, when the Visual Numeric Scale and the Brief Pain Inventory were applied, and 2 weeks after hospital discharge, when the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Bref questionnaire was administered.