Essential pain management at a rural district hospital in Burundi
Southern African Journal of Anaesthesia and Analgesia
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Essential pain management at a rural district hospital in Burundi | |
| Creator | Sund, G. Morriss, W. Ikeda, K. Izere, A. Kwizera, J.C. | |
| Description | Background: Pain management is a significant challenge in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In settings where resources are limited, interventions to improve pain management must be low-cost and context-appropriate. Methods: At a rural district hospital in Burundi, East Africa we undertook the delivery of a simple educational workshop called Essential Pain Management (EPM) and introduction of regular acute pain rounds for post-surgical patients. At the same time, we carried out a pre- and post-intervention audit of pain management. We hypothesised that the use of the EPM educational workshop and introduction of regular acute pain rounds for post-surgical patients would lead to a reduction in patient pain scores, time to first ambulation, hospital length of stay, and changes to analgesic medication prescribing practices. Results: We found improvements in modified visual analogue scale (VAS) scores on postoperative days one (mean VAS 42.3 vs 31.4, p 0.001) and two (mean VAS 33.7 vs 27, p = 0.001), with no difference on day three. We also found a reduction in time to first ambulation after introduction of this service (median time of 38.8 hours vs 28 hours, p 0.001) with no change in length of stay (median four days in both groups). There was also a marked increase in administration of analgesic medications after the service was introduced. Conclusion: Our audit demonstrates a positive impact following a simple low-cost intervention in a rural hospital where resources are severely limited. We believe that this intervention offers a feasible and context-appropriate approach for improving postoperative pain management in a low-resource setting. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2020-10-30 | |
| Identifier | 10.36303/SAJAA.2020.26.5.2395 | |
| Source | Southern African Journal of Anaesthesia and Analgesia; Vol 26, No 5 (2020); 250-255 2220-1173 2220-1181 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://sajaa.co.za/index.php/sajaa/article/view/938/932
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