Acute period of burn injury: characteristics of pain

Abstract

Background. Severe burn is one of the most traumatic injuries. Burn pain is difficult to control because of its unique characteristics, multiple components and over time changing patterns. Objective. To investigate the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of burn pain in the acute period of injury and interrelationships between burn pain and anxiety. Methods. A cross-sectional study carried out in a single burn unit in the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences during the period 10/03/2010 - 22/11/2011. Subjective experience of pain was measured by the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ), the pain intensity was measured by the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale was used to assess anxiety in the acute period of burn injury. The pain treatment protocol was standardized with morphine patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) to all patients. Results. During this period 25 patients with severe burn (TBSA > 10%) were included in the study. The mean age of patients was 48.45 ± 14 yrs. 62.9% of the study subjects were males. [...].