Pain in acute and chronic wounds: a descriptive study.
The significance of pain in wound healing is much neglected because of biases against pain management in general, a lack of knowledge of available analgesics, and difficulties associated with pain measurement. To assess pain in patients suffering from acute and chronic wounds, a 1-day descriptive study was conducted involving 50 patients, 26 with acute wounds and 24 with chronic wounds, served by the wound clinic of a university hospital. Patients responded to questions regarding onset, location, type, and intensity of pain using the Visual Analog and Visual Reporting Scales and to statements about aggravating and relieving factors and overall impact on their quality of life using a 5-point scale where 5 = totally agree and 1 = completely disagree. Results showed pain was commonly mild to moderate (41 patients, 88%), located in and around wound (43 patients, 93.5%), occurred most frequently during dressing change (30 patients, 65%), and was relieved by medications (39 patients, 84.8%) and positioning (17 patients, 37%). The most commonly affected quality of life variables were physical activity (40 patients, 87% of patients) and social functioning (23 patients, 50%). Controlling wound pain can play a major role in improving patient quality of life.
Shukla
Dinesh
D
Department of General Surgery and Orthopedics, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, U.P., India-221005. vkshuklabhu@satyam.net.in
Tripathi
Anuj Kumar
AK
Agrawal
Saurabh
S
Ansari
Mumtaz Ahmad
MA
Rastogi
Amit
A
Shukla
Vijay Kumar
VK
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001458:Bandages; D002648:Child; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000150:complications*