Background: Postoperative pain is the most common problem during perioperative period. An inadequate postoperative pain control causes numerous undesirable consequences. Patient satisfaction, an indicator reflecting quality of care in hospitals, depends on the management of pain.

Objective: To evaluate the factors affecting patient satisfaction after epidural analgesia in a tertiary care center.

Material and Method: Two hundred sixty-two patients who met the criterion in Acute Pain Service at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital between October 2013 and September 2014 were enrolled in the present prospective cohort study. Demographic data, perioperative management related to analgesia, numerical pain score (NPS = 0 to 10), patient satisfaction score (0 to 10; 0 = worst, 10 = best), side effects, and problems resulting from epidural analgesia were recorded.

Results: Two hundred thirty-seven patients (90.5%) rated overall satisfaction score greater than 7. The median (range) overall satisfaction score of receiving epidural analgesia was 9 (3 to 10). The factors associated with increasing satisfaction score were duration of indwelling epidural catheter at three days or less, p = 0.022, OR = 0.13 (0.023 to 0.750), and low pain score, p = 0.009, OR = 0.03 (0.003 to 0.426). The factor related to dissatisfaction was motor weakness of lower extremities, p = 0.012, OR = 15.05 (1.815 to 124.723).

Conclusion: Majority of patients reported high level of satisfaction of pain management relating to epidural analgesia. Decreasing duration of indwelling epidural catheter and low pain score promoted satisfaction whereas motor weakness affected patient dissatisfaction.

Keywords: Epidural analgesia, Patient satisfaction, Postoperative pain management, Risk factor