Assessment of Procedural Pain in Patients with COVID-19 in the Intensive Care Unit.
Sevilay Erden, Tülay Artiklar, İlknur Tura and 1 others
PMID 35418331WHAT IT FOUND
Pain rose during endotracheal aspiration, wound care, and repositioning in ICU patients with COVID-19, and over hours during prone positioning, high-flow oxygen, and noninvasive ventilation.
Key findings
01Pain was higher during endotracheal aspiration, wound care, and position change than before and after those procedures.
02Pain increased over time during prone positioning, high-flow oxygen therapy, and noninvasive mechanical ventilation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
It was a single-centre study limited to COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit. Pain was measured without pain relief during the procedure, so it describes unrelieved procedural pain rather than the effect of analgesia. Many patients were unconscious or had altered consciousness, so pain was assessed by behaviour rather than self-report. The study was not a trial of an analgesic intervention.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that pre-procedure analgesia will prevent this pain, because the study did not test analgesic interventions. The pain scores were measured while patients received no pain relief during the procedure.