Validation and Evaluation of Two Observational Pain Assessment Tools in a Trauma and Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

While the present study supports the use of the CPOT and the NVPS-R with critically ill trauma and neurosurgical patients, further research should explore the role of vital signs in pain.

Nurses’ Evaluations of the Feasibility and Clinical Utility of the Use of the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool-Neuro in Critically Ill Brain-Injured Patients

“…This was the first study to evaluate the feasibility and clinical utility of the CPOT-Neuro for pain assessment in critically ill brain injured ICU adults. The findings are consistent with previous studies on the feasibility and clinical utility of the original CPOT (Chanques et al, 2014;Gélinas, 2010;Gélinas et al, 2015;Topolovec-Vranic et al, 2013). Indeed, the feasibility and clinical utility of the CPOT-Neuro were positively evaluated by ICU nurses.…”

“…As previously reported with the original CPOT Topolovec-Vranic et al, 2013), there was some confusion between the CPOT-Neuro, which was developed to evaluate painrelated behaviors, and the Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS) (Sessler et al, 2002), which evaluates behaviors related to the level of agitation and sedation.…”

Pain Assessment in Noncommunicative Adult Palliative Care Patients

“…Subsequent studies have compared the psychometric properties of the NVPS-R to various forms of the CPOT and the BPS in several populations. In general, the NVPS-R did not perform as well as the other tools or sometimes did not meet acceptable levels 27,48,72 , demonstrating that the NVPS-R may need additional work. There is little evidence that the NPVS or the NPVS-R has been used in palliative care populations or settings, and there are ongoing concerns about reliability, validity, and clinical utility.…”

“…As neurosurgical and delirium populations are frequently encountered in critical care and palliative care patient populations, these studies should be replicated removing the confounder of language. Numerous investigators have conducted studies comparing the CPOT to other behavioral pain assessment tools in intensive care units of various types 18,27,46-48 . In most studies, the CPOT performed as well or better than other tools although it did not perform well in the burn population which could self-report 49 .…”

Validation of critical care pain observation tool in patients hospitalized in surgical wards

“…Different studies such as the studies conducted by Li[12] and Varnik[13] show that CPOT has more validity and reliability than other tools and has priority among patients hospitalized in ICUs who are not able to establish relationship verbally. On the other hand, despite special emphasis on the ability of diagnosis of pain among these patients, a fixed criterion cannot be used for all of them because behaviors of pain are not identical in all communities and cultures.…”