• Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. · Jun 2007

    Analgesic use and pain in the hospital settings.

    • A Vallano, J Malouf, P Payrulet, J E Baños, and Catalan Research Group for the Study of Pain in the Hospital.
    • Fundació Institut Català de Farmacología, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. tv@icf.uab.es
    • Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 2007 Jun 1;63(6):619-26.

    AimThe aim of this study was to assess the analgesic treatment and the prevalence of pain in patients treated with analgesics in hospitals.MethodsAdult patients treated with analgesics were selected from a sample of 1,675 patients in a cross-sectional study carried out in 15 Catalonian hospitals (Spain). Patient characteristics, type of analgesics, treatment schedules, patients' pain intensity and clinical ward and hospital characteristics were assessed. Adherence to analgesic use guidelines was established according to the principles and recommendations of internationally recognised guidelines for pain management. Pain was determined by asking patients about pain intensity by means of a visual analogue scale (VAS).ResultsAnalgesics were prescribed for 1,173 patients (70%; 95% CI: 67.4-72.6), in whom 57% (95% CI: 54.2-59.8) had pain and in whom 30.5% (95% CI: 27.9-33.1) pain intensity was greater than 30 mm. Adherence to analgesic treatment guidelines was judged appropriate in only 26.9% (95% CI: 24.4-29.4%) of all patients. The administered analgesic dose was in the recommended dose range in 42% (95% CI: 54-58) of all analgesics and in 28% (95% CI: 24-32) of opioid analgesics. A minority of patients was treated with a rescue schedule or patient-controlled analgesia (2%; 95% CI: 1.4-2.6). Pain prevalence was higher in those with analgesic treatment that did not adhere to guidelines (63.6%; 95% CI: 60.4-66.8) than in those considered as having appropriate adherence to guidelines (39.3%; 95% CI: 33.8-44.6) (p < 0.001). Adherence to analgesic treatment guidelines was higher in the large hospitals (21%; 95% CI: 18-24) than in medium and small hospitals (13%; 95% CI: 9-16) (p < 0.001).ConclusionsAlthough analgesic use is high in the hospital settings, adherence to the principles and recommendations of pain guidelines is low, and pain is usually common in patients treated with analgesics. These results once again emphasise the need to improve analgesic use and pain management in hospitals.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.