Prevalence of Pain in Inpatient at the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires

The diagnosis and treatment of pain during hospitalization are becoming increasingly important. In recent decades there have been articles that explain that pain is underdiagnosed, that there are patients who do not receive treatment or that it fails to decrease pain intensity. It has now been shown that pain is a common problem during hospitalization, showing a prevalence of 38 to 91% depending on the population studied.

Published studies show that there are three types of pain during hospitalization: acute or chronic pain that motivates the admission and continues during hospitalization, pain that appears during hospitalization but was not the cause of the admission or associated with health care, and,pain that appears during the hospitalization associated with health care. To complete the description of patients with pain during hospitalization it has been suggested the existence of a fourth group of patients presenting with chronic pain that does not motivate the admission but persists and does not interfere during hospitalization. In a study evaluating the Italian population shows that the prevalence of pain is modified by marital status and age, and the intensity of pain increases with time evolution of pain and days of hospital stay. Some studies, mainly in Europe, show that the use of analgesics is high but the adherence to guideline recommendations for treatment of pain is low, or that the presence of pain is not recorded in the medical chart compared to the indication of analgesic treatment.

These results demonstrate the need to determine the prevalence of pain in hospitalization at each institution, distinguishing the case of pain prior to admission or appearing during the same (or motivation), evaluating the indication of pain at each hospital, in order to learn about the current situation and design and implement actions to improve pain management in this institution.

Inclusion criteria

• Adult patients over 18 years.
• Evaluated at 48 hours after hospital admission in areas general hospitalization, coronary care unit, adult intensive care, intermediate care and day hospital of the Hospital Italiano Central

Exclusion criteria

• Refusal to participate in the study or the informed consent process.
• Inability to understand or express pain (aphasia, dementia).
• Alteration ef the sensory.
• Language other than Spanish.
• Inpatient at the emergency room.
• Presence of acute confusion or delirium.