Investigating analgesic consumption and reported pain scores- Ver. 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating patterns of association between total analgesic consumption and pain scoring in adult cardiothoracic surgical patients
IRAS ID
274177
Contact name
Catherine Ann Bradley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research Integrity and Governance Manager University of Stirling
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 7 months, days
Research summary
Clinical decisions regarding postoperative pain management after heart surgery such as drug selection, dose, and assessment of intervention effectiveness are based on subjective pain assessment scales reported by patients or providers. Pain assessments can vary widely even among individuals over the same admission making it difficult for providers to choose appropriate interventions. This in turn can lead to inadequate or delayed reactive treatment of severe pain which has negative consequences for patient outcomes. To avoid these pitfalls, it has become clear balanced preventative pain management is necessary. As a result, there has been an effort to find less subjective and reactive measures to help identify appropriate effective interventions before severe pain is encountered.
This project aims to inform preventative postoperative pain management by providing a more succinct explanation of the patterns of association between analgesic consumption and reported pain scores. It has been designed as retrospective cohort observation of heart surgery patients undergoing similar procedures. The use of statistical methods appropriate for data with multiple variables will provide a more robust understanding of the complex interactions involved in postoperative pain management. An improved understanding of the inherent characteristics of analgesic consumption and reported pain scoring will allow an evaluation of the characteristics consistent with good preventative pain management.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
20/WS/0167
Date of REC Opinion
24 Nov 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion