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Palliative cancer care - pain - Management
How should I assess pain severity?
- Use a validated structured pain assessment tool, for example:
- Numerical rating scale — mark on a scale of 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst possible pain) how strong the pain is.
- Visual analogue scale — mark on a 10-cm line (with 'no pain' at one end and 'worst possible pain' at the other end) how strong the pain is.
- The score can be correlated to the severity of the pain:
- Mild pain: less than 3 out of 10 on a visual analogue scale or numerical rating scale.
- Mild to moderate pain: 3–6 out of 10 on a visual analogue scale or numerical rating scale.
- Severe pain: more than 6 out of 10 on a visual analogue scale or numerical rating scale.
- Differentiate between the person's usual level of pain, breakthrough pain, incident pain, and 'end of dose' failure of regular around-the-clock analgesia. End of dose failure usually occurs at the same time each day, usually just before the next dose is due.
In depth
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