Abstract
Traditionally it has been the inpatient pain team's role to treat patients in pain
while in an inpatient setting. The future is seeing the inpatient pain team's input
being extended to the whole patient's journey including preoperatively and post-discharge.
The treatment of a patient's pain is primarily an ethical and humanitarian obligation
but effective pain management may also improve clinical outcomes. The treatment of
pain from surgery or trauma reduces complication rates for example by improving mobilization
and a patient's ability to take deep breaths and cough. When patients mobilize early
they reduce their risk of venous thromboembolism, pulmonary embolism and pressure
sores. A patient that cannot adequately cough or take deep breaths due to pain is
at higher risk of pneumonia and respiratory compromise. From a health economics perspective
patients who mobilize earlier and have fewer complications spend less time in hospital
and therefore cost less. Untreated severe pain may also predispose patients to develop
chronic pain or to take opioid pain medication for prolonged periods of time.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Anaesthesia & Intensive Care MedicineAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Report of a working party of the commission on the provision of surgical services.London, 2009
- A survey of acute pain services in the UK.Anaesthesia. 2017; 72: 1237-1242
- Inpatient pain services, core standards for pain management services in the UK.Faculty of Pain Medicine, Royal Collage of Anaesthetists, London2021: 30-34
- Guidelines for the provision of anaesthesia services for inpatient pain management.(2021. Guidelines for the Provision of Anaesthesia Services (GPAS), Chapter 11) Royal College of Anaesthetists, London2021
- Chronic and complex pain workload of inpatient pain services (CHIPS) – a national audit. Preliminary analysis of a complete dataset.2019
- The Toronto General Hospital Transitional Pain Service: development and implementation of a multidisciplinary programme to prevent chronic postsurgical pain.J Pain Res. 2015; 8: 695-702
- The IASP classification of chronic pain for ICD-11: chronic postsurgical or posttraumatic pain..Pain. 2019; 160 ([Cited: February 24, 2022]): 45-52
- An international multidisciplinary consensus statement on the prevention of opioid-related harm in adult surgical patients.Anaesthesia. 2021; 76: 520-536
- Surgery and opioids: best practice guidelines 2021.Royal College of Anaesthetists, London2021
Article Info
Publication History
Published online: July 30, 2022
Royal College of Anaesthetists CPD Skills Framework: PainPublication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
