Pain management in medical wards: A single centre experience in Nigeria

Background: Pain is the commonest reason for hospital presentation worldwide. Its prevalence, distribution and severity are similar across different wards. However, the management of pain in medical wards is sub-optimal. The study was aimed at the determination of patients' perception of adequacy of pain management in medical wards.Methods: A cross sectional hospital based study of patients admitted into the medical wards of Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi over a two year period using a validated questionnaire purposively administered to consecutive patients who had diagnoses with pain as a major component (e.g. Sickle Cell Crisis, Painful Neuropathies) to capture socio - demographic and clinical parameters, diagnoses and analgesics (type, dose, escalation frequency).Results: There were 1,986 patients made up of 1,019 females and 967 males with mean age 53±18 years. Up to 31.1% were in their seventh decade with majority (59.3%) living in urban areas. Respondents were admitted with various painful conditions (e.g. neuropathies from diabetes and chronic kidney diseases constitute 42%). They were on appropriate analgesics at rather low doses or one off doses. Up to 62% had used bioceuticals. Majority (95.2%) of respondents felt that pain management in the medical wards was inadequate.Conclusion: Most (95.2%) patients felt pain management while they were on admission was not adequate. Analgesia was based on patient's complaint and the judgment of the physician. Key Words: Pain, analgesics, medical wards, bioceutical