A survey of cancer pain management among hospitalized elderly patients / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

To explore the status of cancer pain management among hospitalized elderly patients.Pain intensity,use of analgesic drugs and incidence of adverse reactions were surveyed for 620 cancer pain patients.And 218 of them were aged over 65 years.The proportions of mild,moderate and severe pain were 29.8％,36.2％ and 34.0％ respectively.And the corresponding rates in young and middle-aged patients were 28.4％,34.8％ and 36.8％ respectively (P ＞ 0.05).In elders with cancer pain,28％ used no analgesic.For severe pain patients,only 71.6％ received potent opioids and 5.4％ nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs.And the corresponding rates in young and middle-aged patients were 26.1％,73.0％ and 4.7％ respectively (P ＞ 0.05).The rates of constipation,dysuria and delirium in elderly patient group were higher than young and middle-aged patient group (P ＜ 0.05).Pain management is unsatisfactory and rational uses of analgesic drugs should be strengthened for preventing the relevant adverse reactions.