COMPARISON OF PAIN, EARLY MOBILIZATION, EARLY DISCHARGE, AND ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING IN PATIENTS FOLLOWING VIDEO-ASSISTED THORACOSCOPIC SURGERY VERSUS OPEN THORACOTOMY

The study aims to compare the effects of open thoracotomy (OT) and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) techniques on patients' levels of pain, early mobilisation, early discharge and activity of daily living. This is a comparative descriptive study of 120 patients who underwent thoracic surgery between September 2024 and February 2025. In the data collection phase, a Patient Information Form, a Visual Analogue Scale to assess pain, and the Katz Activities of Daily Living Scale to measure activities of daily living were used. Statistical methods such as number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-squared test and Student t-test were used to analyse the data. As a result of the comparisons between the VATS and OT groups, it was observed that patients in the VATS group had lower postoperative pain levels, shorter hospital discharge time and higher Katz activities of daily living levels compared to patients in the OT group (p < 0.05). In addition, patients in the VATS group had longer 1st and 2nd mobilisation times and earlier 1st and 2nd mobilisation hours (p