Skip Navigation



Annals of Oncology Advance Access published online on September 13, 2006
Annals of Oncology, doi:10.1093/annonc/mdl314
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
18/1/158    most recent
mdl314v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Martoni, A. A.
Right arrow Articles by Giaquinta, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Martoni, A. A.
Right arrow Articles by Giaquinta, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2006 European Society for Medical Oncology
Received June 9, 2006
Revised July 19, 2006
Accepted July 21, 2006

original article

Twice-daily pain monitoring as standard clinical practice for inpatients at a medical oncology unit: a descriptive study

A. A. Martoni 1 *, C. Degli Esposti 1, A. Cricca 1, G. Rocchi 1, and S. Giaquinta 1

1 Medical Oncology Unit, Sant' Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna, Italy

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
A. A. Martoni, E-mail: martoni{at}aosp.bo.it


  Abstract

Background: Very limited experiences have explored the use of pain intensity monitoring in everyday clinical practice at a medical oncology inpatient unit.

Methods: The program ‘Pain-Free Hospital,’ including a training course for nurses and the recording every 12 h of a visual analog scale (VAS) rating in all the patients admitted to the inpatients' ward independently of their disease stage, was activated in 2002. An audit on the clinical charts of patients admitted for the first time in the first semester of 2003 was carried out in order to ascertain the applicability of the procedure and its congruence with patients' clinical status.

Results: The VAS rating was reported in 211 out of 223 (94.6%) clinical charts. At entry, 60 out of 211 (28.4%) patients presented VAS ≥ 1, 21 (35%) of whom were not taking any analgesics. The mean VAS score ≥ 1 was 3.4. No statistically significant difference emerged in the distribution of VAS rating as regards disease extension, presence or absence of bone metastases and performance status.

Conclusions: The systematic monitoring of VAS by nurses at a medical oncology inpatients' ward is feasible with a good patient compliance. The reliability of the procedure in terms of guiding the analgesic treatment has yet to be demonstrated.

Keywords: analgesic therapy; pain monitoring; VAS.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.