Pain Assessment in the Intensive Care Unit

Completed

Conditions studied: Delirium, Critical Illness

In brief

Pain assessment using self-report scales (Visual Analogue Scale, Numerical Rating Scale), is recommended in the general population, however it is not always possible in patients with altered neurological status such as sedated patients or patients with delirium. Consequently, pain assessment is highly challenging in these ICU patients. This is a prospective observational study assessing 3 behavioral pain scales in the ICU. The hypothesis of this proposal is that one of the three ICU pain scales has a more important reliability than the others. Such a scale could be recommended to be used to measure pain intensity in ICU patients not able to communicate.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT01628185

Run by

University of Chicago

People needed

30

Starts

2012-01-01

Expected to finish

2014-07-01

Last updated by the study team

2015-12-17

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 100. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• age > 18 years
• not comatose, defined by a Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS) ≥ -3, i.e. between -3 and +4
• not able to self-report accurately their pain intensity using a visually enlarged 0-10 numeric rating scale

You may not qualify if…

• neurological deficits (acute or chronic) that prevent observation of the muscle tonus or movement. For example:
• Quadriplegia
• Current use of Neuromuscular blocking agents
• Severe brain injuries

Where it is running

• University of Chicago Medical Center — Chicago, Illinois, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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