- Pharmacology
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Assessment and Treatment of Pain in Adult Intensive Care Unit Patients
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Jun Mo Park, Ji Hyun Kim
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Korean J Crit Care Med. 2014;29(3):147-159. Published online August 31, 2014
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.4266/kjccm.2014.29.3.147
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Abstract
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- In most cases, patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) have suffered from severe trauma, undergone major surgery or been treated for a serious medical illness.
Although they often experience more intense pain than general ward patients, they are frequently unable to communicate their experiences to health care providers, thus preventing accurate assessment and treatment of their pain.
If appropriate measures are not taken to treat pain in critically ill patients, stress response or sympathetic overstimulation can lead to complications. The short-term consequences of untreated pain include higher energy expenditure and immunomodulation. Longer-term, untreated pain increases the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Because pain is quite subjective, the accurate assessment of pain is very difficult in the patients with impaired communication ability. The current most valid and reliable behavioral pain scales used to assess pain in adult ICU patients are the Behavioral Pain Scale and the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool. Once pain has been accurately assessed using these methods, various pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapies should be performed by the multidisciplinary care team. Accurate assessment and proper treatment of pain in adult ICU patients will improve patients outcome, which reduces the stress response and decreases the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
- Nurses’ knowledge, practice, and associated factors of pain assessment in critically ill adult patients at public hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Temesgen Ayenew, Berhanu Melaku, Mihretie Gedfew, Haile Amha, Keralem Anteneh Bishaw International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences.2021; 15: 100361. CrossRef - Impact of Pain Management Algorithm on Pain Intensity of Patients with Loss of Consciousness Hospitalized in Intensive Care Unit: A Clinical Trial
Zahra Dehghani, Asadollah Keikhaei, Fariba Yaghoubinia, Aliakbar Keykha, Masoom Khoshfetrat Medical - Surgical Nursing Journal.2019;[Epub] CrossRef - Ignorance may be Bliss (for Intensivists), but not for ICU Patients!
Atul P. Kulkarni, Sumitra G Bakshi Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine.2019; 23(4): 161. CrossRef
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