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Emergency Department Pain Management: Beyond Opioids
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Although assessment of pain is essential to its treatment, visual analog and numerical rating scales are problematic.
Many pain specialists are moving to assessing pain with functional assessments. The Brief Pain Inventory Short Form (BPI-SF) has been found to be feasible for use in the ED.
In the prehospital setting, ketamine has been used at 0.3 mg/kg for analgesia, with promising results when compared to fentanyl.
Consider nonpharmacologic treatment of pain such as immobilization, splinting, orthopedic reduction, heat or ice, electrical nerve stimulation, deep breathing, music therapy, aromatherapy, guided imagery, verbal suggestion, and family support.