Summary
Introduction
As a typical consequence of bleeding into muscles and joints, patients with severe hemophilia suffer from acute and chronic pain. In spite of its high prevalence, pain in this patient group is not always sufficiently considered or treated in an effective manner.
Aim
The recommendations presented in this paper address possible improvements in pain management in hemophilia patients and particularities that have to be taken into account in this patient group.
Method
The manifold aspects of pain management in hemophilia patients were discussed within the framework of an expert meeting. Based on the available literature and the experts’ clinical experience, the participants developed a set of recommendations presented in this paper.
Results
Pain management in patients with hemophilia is often insufficient, a fact that not only influences the patients’ quality of life but also implies the risk of difficult to manage chronic pain. Both the prevalent polypharmacy (due to comorbidities) as well as the underlying disease itself present special challenges to pain therapy in this patient group. The present review and recommendations are intended to support medical professionals in recognising the risks of pain chronicity, applying basic principles of multimodal pain therapy, including the options of psychological intervention and modalities of physical medicine in therapy concepts, and reaching a comprehensive understanding of the range of analgesic options available.
Opioid addiction represents an exaggerated organic and psychological comorbidity and should be regarded as a high-risk problem. Particular features seen perioperatively are tolerance, hyperalgesia and higher analgesic requirement together with physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms. Adequate pain management should have a high priority even for these patients.This review deals with the specific problems of addiction or opioid tolerance in this vulnerable patient group in the perioperative period. In this group are opioid-tolerant chronic pain patients on long-term therapy, addicts with long-term substitution therapy, those currently addicted and those with a previous history of addiction, mainly to heroin. This article intends to simplify the management of drug-dependent patients and offers strategies for perioperative analgesia that include stabilisation of physical dependency by substitution with methadone or μ-agonists; avoidance of stress; use of regional techniques in combination with non-opioids or opioids with higher doses than those used in non-addicts; avoidance of inadequate analgesic dosing; effective use of the opioid-sparing effect of different co-analgesics; and psychological support wherever appropriate.Those caring for abstinent patients should note that an inadequate dosage of analgesics can potentially reactivate addiction. After successful withdrawal of opioids and prolonged abstinence, opioid therapy can result in an exaggerated response.
Pain management in children with hemophilia needs improvement. Children with hemophilia are at risk of developing chronic pain and of suffering traumatization due to insufficient pain management. Pain therapy can be challenging in these children as both their age and the underlying disease limit the options in particular in pain medication. The expert panel developed recommendations to improve pain management in children with hemophilia.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.