LAST YEAR WAS the 40-year anniversary of Margo McCaffery’s landmark definition of pain: ‘‘Pain is what the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does.’’ This definition has been supported by decades of clinical trials of analgesics and other pain research. All accepted pain guidelines today reflect the philosophy of McCaffery’s definition, reinforcing that the patient’s s...

Neuropathic pain is defined as ‘pain initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction of the nervous system’. It can be a debilitating and difficult condition to treat and is often resistant to simple analgesics, requiring additional analgesic approaches. Recent estimates suggest that up to 8% of the general population suffer with pain that is associated with neuropathic features and, whe...

A review of the important points of history taking in chiropractic practice for back pain are presented.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Chronic pain in children with cerebral palsy (CP) is underrecognized, leading to detriments in their physical, social, and mental well-being. Our objective was to identify, describe, and critique pediatric chronic pain assessment tools and make recommendations for clinical use for children with CP. Secondly, develop an evidence-informed toolbox to support clinicians in ...

In addition to history (1), clinical examination (2) and imaging procedures (3), there are a variety of simple blood and urine tests which may detect pathology. This paper presents a description of the use of the tests most commonly used in hospitals and private practice together with some of the more specific investigations. The information provided has been drawn from two well known texts.(4)(5)

Context Pain assessment, using an appropriate assessment tool, is a quality of marker1 2 and provides a method of evaluating the effectiveness of pain treatment. Best practice in the measurement of pain is patient self-report.3 Previous studies demonstrate that nurses do not routinely conduct pain assessment,4 pain tools are not used for assessment5 and that nurse and patient scores do not match.6

This study investigated pediatric pain control practices in North American Burn Centers using a mail-in survey. Questions were asked regarding pain control practices, pain assessment methods, and perceived treatment efficacy for inpatients and outpatients in four age groups. Eighty-two centers responded with 111 surveys. Intravenous morphine was the most frequently used analgesic for wound care...

Pain management is a very important aspect in the intensive care unit (ICU), as adequate pain control has been shown to be associated with better clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. A Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) ranging from 0 to 10 (0, no pain; 10, maximum pain), which is based on a patient's self-report, is the gold standard for pain evaluation in patients who can communicate their...

BACKGROUND Paramedics are often a first point of contact for people experiencing pain in the community. Wherever possible the patient's self report of pain should be sought to guide the assessment and management of this complaint. Communication difficulty or disability such as cognitive impairment associated with dementia may limit the patient's ability to report their pain experience, and this...