Articles: pain-measurement.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Aug 2022
Remote After-Care Using Smartphones (RACUS): a feasibility study of monitoring children's pain with automated SMS messaging.
Monitoring children's recovery postoperatively is important for routine care, research, and quality improvement. Although telephone follow-up is common, it is also time-consuming and intrusive for families. Using SMS messaging to communicate with families regarding their child's recovery has the potential to address these concerns. While a previous survey at our institution indicated that parents were willing to communicate with the hospital by SMS, data on response rates for SMS-based postoperative data collection is limited, particularly in pediatric populations. ⋯ This methodology is likely to generalize well to other simple clinical questions and produce good response rates in further similar studies. We expect SMS messaging to permit expanded longitudinal data collection and broader investigation into patient recovery than previously feasible using telephone follow-up at our institution.
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Diverticulitis should be suspected in patients with isolated left lower quadrant pain, abdominal distention or rigidity, fever, and leukocytosis. Initial laboratory workup includes a complete blood count, basic metabolic panel, urinalysis, and C-reactive protein measurement. Computed tomography with intravenous contrast is the preferred imaging modality, if needed to confirm diagnosis and assess for complications of diverticulitis. ⋯ Colonoscopy should not be performed during the flare-up, but should be considered six weeks after resolution of symptoms in patients with complicated diverticulitis who have not had a high-quality colonoscopy in the past year. Diverticulitis prevention measures include consuming a vegetarian diet or high-quality diet (high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes), limiting red meat and sweets, achieving or maintaining a body mass index of 18 to 25 kg per m2, being physically active, and avoiding tobacco and long-term nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Partial colectomy is not routinely recommended for diverticulitis prevention and should be reserved for patients with more than three recurrences or abscess formation requiring percutaneous drainage.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of an Emoji-Based Visual Analog Scale With a Numeric Rating Scale for Pain Assessment.
This study surveyed patients admitted to the emergency department or surgical units at a single hospital to compare an emoji-based pain scale with a conventional numeric rating scale.
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Recent studies suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic can serve as a unique psychosocial stressor that can negatively impact individuals with chronic pain. Using a large online sample in the U. S., the present study sought to investigate the impact of the pandemic on the trajectories of pain severity and interference, emotional distress (ie, anxiety and depressive symptoms), and opioid misuse behaviors across one year. ⋯ Nevertheless, interventions that target improvement of pain acceptance may help individuals with chronic pain be resilient during the pandemic. PERSPECTIVE: Individuals with chronic pain overall did not experience significant exacerbation of pain, emotional distress, and opioid misuse across one year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals with higher pain acceptance showed greater improvement in pain severity and depressive symptoms over time during the pandemic.