Knowledge of the incidence and significance of postoperative pain is essential for the establishment of effective pain treatment programmes. Detailed investigations on the incidence, severity and quality of postoperative pain from the surgeon's perspective are scarce in German hospitals. It was the aim of our study to investigate postoperative pain in general surgery under routine conditions. PATIENTS AND METHODS. A total of 168 patients scheduled for abdominal, vascular and orthopaedic surgery were investigated in a prospective trial. Pain was assessed by means of a 100-point visual analogue scale (VAS), a 5-point verbal rating scale (VRS), the original version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) and the short form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (SFMPQ). These were applied preoperatively and daily thereafter up to the 7th postoperative day. Patients were randomly assigned into two groups with different sequences of application of the instruments. The pain treatment programme included intravenous analgesia with tramadol/metamizol (max. tramadol 400 mg+metamizol 5 g in any 24 h) after major surgery and additional administration of piritramide as needed (max. 60 mg/24 h.i.v.). After minor surgery ibuprofen was routinely given for analgesia (3 x 500 mg). RESULTS. All patients had pain on the days 1 and 2 postoperatively. The mean intensity of pain was 44 VAS points on day 1 and 6.8 points on day 7. The mean intensity of pain measured by the VRS on the 1st postoperative day was between "mild" and "moderate". The quality of pain showed a constant pattern concerning the mean scale values of descriptors of each subgroup (sensory, evaluative, affective, mixed) for both the original and the short form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire up to the 7th postoperative day. Sensory descriptors were reported more frequently than affective descriptors. Typical pain patterns were identified for different operations. After subtotal thyroidectomy, for example, patients perceived a high intensity of pain of short duration. In contrast, patients still have a high intensity of pain up to 7 days after abdominal and rectal operations. CONCLUSIONS. We conclude from our results that patients perceive significant postoperative pain under current standardized pain treatment in our department. Effective programmes for pain relief should take account of the different patterns of pain after different operations, as identified in this study.