Outcome of cancer pain consultations

Abstract

BACKGROUND. All major cancer centers in the United States are equipped with pain management consultation services. We report on the outcome of such consultations within 24 hours from the intervention. METHODS. All consecutive patients referred to the pain management service of a tertiary care cancer center were assessed before and 14-24 hours after the intervention. RESULTS. A total of 45 patients completed the study. The mean current pain intensity score was 5.2 on the Visual Analogue Scale before the consultation and 2.7 after the consultation (P < 0.05). The pain was described as excruciating on the Categorical Scale by three patients before the consultation and by no patients after the consultation. CONCLUSIONS. In hospitalized cancer patients with difficult to control pain, cancer pain consultations result in a measurable effect within 24 hours of the pharmacologic intervention. To avoid unnecessary suffering, timeliness is of the utmost importance when requesting and delivering cancer pain consultations. (C) 2000 American Cancer Society.