Pain Assessment in Pediatric Patients – A Literature Review

Abstract

Introduction. Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience caused by existing or possible tissue damage. Pediatric patients are a sensitive group whose experience of pain is influenced by various other factors, so the assessment and treatment of pain itself is of a different nature than adults. Correct assessment of pain enables adequate treatment and alleviation of complaints. Aim. The aim of the paper was to perform a systematic review of the literature related to the assessment of pain in pediatric patients and to gather available knowledge on the reliability and validity of certain pain assessment methods in one place. Methods. The PubMed database was searched with the aim of finding studies indicating the reliability and validity of the Wong-Baker, VAS, COMFORT and FLACC scales. Included papers are systematic reviews, review articles and research papers published in the period from 2000 to 2020. Languages that were acceptable for the inclusion were English and Croatian. Keywords used for searching the database were pain assessment, pediatrics and pain scales. Results. According to the inclusion criteria for this paper, 9 studies were used in which pediatric patients from birth to 18 years of age were included. The guidelines indicate the clinical reliability of the listed scales with guidance on which scales are better to use in which cases. Pain assessment scales have been proven by research to be a good indicator of pain in children, whether self-reported with the VAS or Wong-Baker scale or assessed by a medical professional with the FLACC, COMFORT or EVENDOL scale.