Articles: postoperative-pain.
-
Anaesth Intensive Care · Feb 2005
Clinical TrialThe linearity of the visual analogue scale in patients with severe acute pain.
The visual analogue scale (VAS) is a standard measurement tool in pain research and clinical practice, and has been shown to have linear scale properties for mild to moderate pain. Our aim was to evaluate the scaling properties of the VAS in subjects with severe acute pain. After Ethics Committee approval we studied 22 patients and asked them to rate the severity of their pain on a 100 mm VAS at the initial assessment (VAS1), and again after administration of analgesic medication. ⋯ The correlation of the patients' estimate of pain relief with the VASfinal was r=0.89, rho=0.87, both P<0.001. The VAS is a linear scale in subjects with severe acute pain. Changes in the VAS score represent a relative change in the magnitude of pain sensation.
-
Chronic pain represents a major public health problem. A major precursor of a chronic pain state is persistent acute postoperative pain. Risk factors of developing persistent acute postoperative pain are identified and preventative strategies for implementation are discussed.
-
A retrospective comparison of postoperative continuous epidural analgesia and patient-controlled analgesia following surgical treatment for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. ⋯ Although both continuous epidural analgesia and patient-controlled analgesia provide effective pain control following surgery for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, patients with continuous epidural analgesia had significantly better pain scores for all time periods, less fluctuations in pain, and lower maximum pain levels during the postoperative period.