Analysis of Pain Records for Cancer Patients Complaining of Moderate or Severe Pain

Park, Ran Hee; Cho, Ok Hee; Yoo, Yang Sook

Abstract

PURPOSE
This is a retrospective study that investigated cancer patients' complaints of moderate or severe pain to analyze pain characteristics, pain relief interventions and their effects.
METHODS
This is a retrospective study that investigated cancer patients' complaints of moderate or severe pain to analyze pain characteristics, pain relief interventions and their effects.
RESULTS
The most frequent region of pain was the abdomen. The most frequent factor that exacerbated pain was movement. The most frequent pain alleviating factor was administration of analgesics. The most frequent pain type was breakthrough pain, and the most frequent non-pharmaceutical intervention for pain control was heat therapy. Among all, analgesics were routinely prescribed for 52.2% of the participants. Morphine sulfate was the most frequently used analgesic while Gabapentin was the most frequently used non-narcotic analgesic. At the time of discharge, 82.5% of the participants marked their pain intensity as 3 points or lower.
CONCLUSION
For cancer patients complaining of moderate or severe pain, it is important to actively control pain from the beginning of admission. Thus, it is necessary to educate not only cancer patients using narcotic analgesic for pain control and their families but nurses about the effects and side-effects of drugs. Moreover, patients and their families need to learn how to assess and record pain at home to collect data that can be referred for future treatment.