Evaluation of the patient with acute pain

Abstract

Assessing the intensity of pain and its impact on the individual’s quality of life is the starting point for effective analgesia. Segregating groups helps in evaluating the pain component through the use of distinct scales and metrics adapted to each context. Understanding pain expression beyond the lesion, so as not to overvalue and/or undervalue the painful complaint, is the responsibility of the healthcare team, thereby avoiding discrimination of the patient’s individual moment of suffering. Acute pain, unlike chronic pain, allows for a faster and more objective assessment, which also makes it a clinical condition that requires urgent therapy in the same proportion, bringing immediate results and leading to comfort and relief of suffering. Its assessment goes beyond the hospital setting, starting from the initial contact with the patient in a painful condition. Understanding the behavior of different groups with varying limitations of expression and communication becomes a challenge in pain assessment in special populations.