Prevalence of pain in the last 2 weeks of life in hospitalized pediatric patients
Prevalence of pain in the last 2 weeks of life in hospitalized pediatric patients
Blog Article
Introduction: Pain is a very common symptom in children who have a complex, chronic, life-threatening or life-limiting disease, generating a negative impact on the quality of life of the child and his or her family.There is very limited evidence regarding end-stage symptoms in pediatric patients receiving palliative care; Baumann et al.described in Pliers 2021 the presence of pain in 56% of their terminally ill patients.So far, there have been no studies in Latin America on the prevalence of pain in the last weeks of life in pediatric patients.Objective: The study aimed to determine the prevalence of pain in the past 2 weeks of life in children who died in the Hospital in the past 5 years.
Materials: A retrospective, observational, and longitudinal study was carried out in which the records of patients over 1 month of age and under 18 years of age who died in hospital were included.Results: The records of 98 patients who died during their in-hospital stay were obtained, of which 52 reported the presence of pain in their past 2 weeks of life.Most of the patients were teenagers; oncological pathologies were the most frequent.In less than half of the patients, the use of a tool to assess the intensity of pain was reported, with the verbal numerical scale being the most used.Severe pain was reported in nearly half of the patients, and in a quarter of the children, its intensity was not described.
About 71.2% of the children were managed with opioids (alone or in combination with other drugs).Only a third of the subjects were evaluated by the Algology service Pediatric.Conclusions: Timely identification and treatment of pain, especially in terminal phases, is essential to reduce the suffering and agony of these patients.To this Trainning - Femme - Chaussures end, its assessment by the Pediatric Algology service can favor comprehensive management and adequate control of the symptom.