BackgroundTriage is used to prioritize the patients in the emergency department. The majority of the triage systems include the patients’ pain score to assess their level of acuity by using a combination of patient reported pain and observer-perceived pain; the latter therefore requires a certain degree of inter-observer agreement.The aim of the present study was to assess the inter-observer agreement of perceived pain among emergency department nurses and to evaluate if it was influenced by predetermined factors like age and gender.MethodA project assistant randomly recruited two nurses, who were not allowed to interact with each other, to assess patient pain intensity on the numeric ranking scale. The project assistant afterwards entered the pain scores in a predesigned electronic questionnaire.We used weighted Fleiss-Cohen (quadratic) kappa statistics, Bland-Altman statistics and logistic regression analysis to assess the inter-observer agreement.ResultsOne hundred and sixty-two patients were included. They had a median age of 38 years and 45% were females. 30% of the patients were acute surgical patients and 70% acute orthopedic patients. The average time between the pain assessments were 1,7 min. The Bland Altman analysis found a mean difference in pain score of 0.2 and 95% limits of agreement of +/− 3 point. When the NRS scores were translated to commonly used pain categories (no, mild, moderate or severe pain) we found a 70% agreement with a mean difference in categories of 0.05 and 95% limits of agreement of +/− 1 category. Patient age, gender, localization of pain, examination room or presence of a significant other did not affect the inter-observer agreement.ConclusionWe found 70% agreement on pain category between the nurses and it is justified that nurse-perceived pain assessment is used for triage in the emergency department.
The aim of this study was to report our experience with colon interposition (COI) and to compare the results with an extensive review of the COI literature. Summary of Background Data: The stomach is the first choice as an esophageal substitute following esophagectomy in cancer patients, while COI is reserved for patients where the stomach is not available or must be included in the resection due to cancer. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of cancer patients undergoing colon interposition from 2006 to 2017. Outcomes were compared with an extensive review of the literature published between 2000 and 2017. Results: A total of 13 patients underwent planned COI. Mortality was zero and overall morbidity was 53%; 4 patients suffered from leakage and 2 patients from strictures. None of the patients suffered from necrosis of the interponat and there was no need for subsequent redundancy operations. The extensive review identified 23 publications. Overall study grading was low (grade C). Only 3 studies were prospective, no randomized studies were found, and many outcomes were poorly defined. The rates for 30-day and in-hospital mortality were 1% and 2%, respectively. Overall morbidity was 43%. The reported number of leakages, strictures, necrosis of the interponat, and redundancy operations varied between 0% and 50%, 0% and 21%, 0% and 9%, and 0% and 2%, respectively. Conclusions: COI is a complex technique that is necessary in a relatively small group of selected patients after esophagectomy for cancer. Prospective and comparative studies with strict outcome definitions, long-term follow up, and patient reported outcome measures are lacking.
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