Pain assessment in children with cancer: comprehensive systematic review.

• Author(s): Batalha, Luís Manuel da Cunha ; Fernandes, Ananda Maria ; Campos, Diana Catarina Ferreira de ; Gonçalves, Ana Maria Pacheco Mendes Perdigão Costa
• Date: 2014
• Origin: Repositório Científico da Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra
• Subject(s): nursing; pain; Child; Cancer
• Document Type: Conference Object
• Language: English

Description

Background and aims Chronic pain has special features that may affect its expression. Thus, a more comprehensive assessment is needed. Aims To identify pain assessment tools and indicators associated to pain experience in children with cancer. Methods A systematic review was conducted. An electronic search was performed in Medline e CINAHL (2003-2013). Primary studies that used pain assessment tools and other indicators associated to pain experience in 0-18yo children with cancer were analyzed. The selection of the studies and the data extraction was performed by two researchers. Disagreements were solved by a third person. Results Sixteen studies were analyzed. Ten pain assessment tools found were one-dimensional or multidimensional. No tool to diagnose neuropathic pain was found. Multidimensional symptom assessment tools were also identified and they assess pain along with other physical and psychosocial symptoms. Other tools were identified to assess physical and emotional functioning, nausea, vomiting and sleep. Although pain intensity is needed to quantify pain, other features such as location, temporal pattern and quality are important to outline cancer pain phenotype profile. Identifying clusters of physical and psychosocial symptoms may help to manage pain and other symptoms in an integrated way. Conclusions Comprehensive assessment of pain may help to identify the relationship between pain and other symptoms; identify the impact of pain and prioritize pain control interventions. Further investigation is needed to identify the tools that best tailor cancer pain assessment. Acknowledgements. Work supported by grant PTDC/PSI-PCL/114652/2009, from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.