Table 3.
Pain incidence and intensity at various times reported by the eleven articles included in the present review
| Time postinjury | Study | Analgesic medication use (% patients) | Pain measure used | Pain incidence (% patients) | Pain score/intensity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial assessment (during hospitalization or at discharge) | Williamson et al43 | NR | NRS | 48% (n = 619, 95% CI: 45–51) | Moderate to severe |
| Norman et al38 | NR | VAS | NR | Mean 5.64 (SD = 2.46) | |
| MPQ | NR | Mean 14.11 (SD = 10.15) | |||
| Michaels et al42 | NR | SF-36: bodily pain (answers standardized on a 100-point scale) | NR | 81.8 (non-ORTHO patients); 80.9 (ORTHO patients) | |
| Clay et al41,* | NR | MPQ | 77% | NR | |
| 3–4 months | Mayou and Bryant36 | NR | SF-6: bodily pain | 28% (n = 238) | Moderate, severe, or very severe pain |
| Clay et al41 | NR | MPQ | 65% (n = 137) | NR | |
| Norman et al38 | NR | VAS | NR | Mean 1.85 (SD = 2.62) | |
| MPQ | NR | Mean 2.86 (SD = 4.65) | |||
| Castillo et al39 | 16.9% | VAS | 71.8% | NR | |
| Holmes37 | NR | NRS | 86% (16% of which reported a level of pain at 5 or more) | Mean pain score 2.4 (SD = 2.1) | |
| Aitken et al34 | NR | SF-36 | 93% (n = 113) | NR | |
| 6 months | Williamson et al43 | NR | NRS | 30% (n = 387, 95% CI: 28–33) | |
| Clay et al41 | NR | MPQ | 54% (n = 81) (56.7% of which had moderate to high pain severity) | NR | |
| Michaels et al42 | NR | SF-36: bodily pain (answers standardized on a 100-point scale) | NR | 56.2 (non-ORTHO patients); 44.6 (ORTHO patients) | |
| 8 months | Sanders et al40 | NR | VAS | NR | Mean 3.8 (SD = 2.9) |
| WOMAC | Mean 1.92 (SD = 4.02) | ||||
| Norman et al38 | 10 | VAS | NR | Mean 1.57 (SD = 2.65) | |
| MPQ | NR | Mean 1.92 (SD = 4.02) | |||
| 12 months | Mayou and Bryant36 | NR | SF-6: bodily pain | 22% (n = 171) | Moderate, severe, or very severe pain |
| Michaels et al42 | Increased use of sedatives (20% of ORTHO vs 4% of non-ORTHO patients) and analgesics (30% of ORTHO vs 4% of non-ORTHO patients) | SF-36: bodily pain | NR | 79.0 (non-ORTHO patients); 66.5 (ORTHO patients) | |
| 36 months | Mayou and Bryant35 | NR | SF-6: bodily pain | 21% (n = 104) | NR |
| Jenewein et al33 | 12.2% (n = 11) of all patients; 27.5% (n = 11) of patients who reported pain | Yes/no question on whether the patient had pain related to their trauma | 44% (n = 40) | NR | |
| 84 months | Castillo et al39 | 15% of patients treated with analgesics at 3 months had CPG level IV at 84 months versus 30% of these patients who were treated without analgesics (P = 0.019) | Graded chronic pain questionnaire | 77.1% | NR |
Note:
*
Clay et al assessed pain at 2 weeks following traumatic injury.36
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; CPG, chronic pain grades; MPQ, McGill Pain Questionnaire; NR, not reported; ORTHO, orthopedic injury; NRS, numeric rating scale; SF-6/36, Short Form 6/36; SD, standard deviation; VAS, visual analog scale; WOMAC, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis.