Evaluation and management of pain in geriatric patients who were diagnosed in Emergency Department

Rybojad Beata, Chudzik Robert, Mendrek Sim Magdalena, Pawelec Sławomir, Matuszewski Piotr, Piróg Paweł, Rybojad Paweł. Evaluation and management of pain in geriatric patients who were diagnosed in Emergency Department. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2019;9(2):393-402. eISNN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2579120

http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/6632

https://pbn.nauka.gov.pl/sedno-webapp/works/905933

The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part b item 1223 (26/01/2017).

1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eissn 2391-8306 7

© The Authors 2019;

This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland

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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Received: 16.01.2019. Revised: 30.01.2019. Accepted: 27.02.2019.

Evaluation and management of pain in geriatric patients who were diagnosed in Emergency Department

Beata Rybojad^1,2, Robert Chudzik³, Magdalena Mendrek-Sim⁴, Sławomir Pawelec⁵, Piotr Matuszewski⁵, Paweł Piróg⁵, Paweł Rybojad^3,5

1. Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Children’s University Hospital of Lublin
2. Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of Lublin

3. Chair and Department of Thoracic Surgery, Medical University of Lublin
4. II Department of Physiotherapy, Medical University of Lublin
5. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Holy Cross Cancer Centre in Kielce

Introduction and purpose of the work. Pain is one of the most common causes of medical rescue teams’ callings. Most of the cases are solved at patients’ homes. Some problems presented by geriatric patients are too difficult to be evaluated at home and need to be admitted to  hospitals’ emergency departments(ED) for further diagnosis. Geriatric patients are often burdened with multiorgan dysfunctions which can cause pain. This problem in senior population is often overlooked or underestimated Material and method. Survey was conducted among 100 patients after 65 years of age who were admitted to ED because of pain. Location, the intensity of pain before and after application of analgesia, vital signs( heart rate, blood pressure, the number of breaths, temperature), previously administered pain killers and sociodemographic factors were evaluated and noted Results. Women predominated in the study group as well as the patients with posttraumatic pain (mostly fall from the same height). Forty five percent  of patients took a painkiller at home. Preliminary average rating of pain numeric scale (NRS) was 7.49 points. Respondents who received painkillers before coming to the ED, felt more severe pain than those who did not take medications (NRS 7.93 vs. 7.41). Thirty minutes after application of analgesic pain intensity averaged 3.74 points.

Conclusions. Pain is a common cause among elderly patients who report to ED, despite previously adopted analgesics. It remains underestimated in prehospital care and needs special attention in emergency departments.

Key words: geriatric patient, injury, pain assessment, emergency department