How much pain is bearable? Surgical patients' expectations of pain therapy

Introduction: Sufficient pain treatment is part of surgical therapy. One po pular method of pain control is patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), which a llows the patients to apply small doses of analgesics intravenously via a p ump. Patient involvement in PCA requires an exact assessment of the patient 's expectations as to the treatment of pain. Methods: In a prospective stud y the patient's expectations of pain therapy were observed with respect to their disease and the actual. intensity of pain during activities measured with a visual analogue scale (VAS). Fifty-three patients were involved, usi ng a pain questionnaire. Healthy nursing staff (n = 44) served as a control group. Results: Patients with benign (n = 29) or malignant (n = 24) diseas e showed no significant difference in the VAS scores accepted from patients as aim of successful pain therapy (25 points in the conservatively treated group and 27 points in the group of the operatively treated patients with malignant disease, 21 points in the operatively treated group with benign d isease, and 18 points in the group suffering from chronic pain of benign ca uses). The aims for pain therapy showed no correlation with the actually fe lt pain intensity during movement. The control group of healthy nursing sta ff felt less actual pain during movement, but their expectations for suffic ient pain treatment were not significantly different from the study patient s (VAS 25,4 points).