Vietnamese patients’ views on healthcare are changing as surgical interventions become more commonplace, but their views on perioperative care have remained largely unstudied during this period of rapid change. This study assesses Vietnamese patients’ impression of anesthesia safety and postoperative pain in relation to clinical outcomes with the aim of improving patient-centered perioperative care.

The study cohort consisted of 180 hospitalized patients who were followed for 24 h following abdominal surgery. The assessments of these patients on the use of anesthesia and postoperative pain were measured by means of a 5-point Likert scale survey. Perioperative events were recorded on standardized forms by medical staff. The relationship between relevant factors affecting the patients’ perceptions of anesthesia safety, postoperative symptoms, and pain was examined using multiple logistic regression analysis.

The perception of a low level of anesthesia safety by 105 patients (59%) was associated with a low satisfaction in terms of preoperative anesthesia education [odds ratio (OR) 15.03], poor interaction with family (OR 21.80), and absence of perioperative adverse effects (OR 6.10). The occurrence of three or more postoperative symptoms (59%) was associated with a surgery ≥3 h (OR 2.00). Severe pain at 2 h (25%) post-surgery was associated with male gender (OR 2.08) and open surgery (OR 3.30), no reduction in pain at 24 h (51%) was associated with female gender (OR 2.08), and experiencing as much or more pain than expected (46%) was associated with blood loss ≥100 ml (OR 1.04) and low satisfaction with staff communication (OR 1.90).

Our results suggest that facilitating patients’ communication with staff and families and paying attention to gender differences in pain management are important factors to take into consideration when the aim is to improve perioperative care in the rapidly developing healthcare environment of Vietnam.