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Pain in elderly orthopaedic patients
Author(s) -
CLOSS S. JOSÉ,
FAIRTLOUGH HELEN L.,
TIERNEY ALISON J.,
CURRIE COLIN T.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of clinical nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1365-2702
pISSN - 0962-1067
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2702.1993.tb00129.x
Subject(s) - medicine , orthopedic surgery , physical therapy , opioid , surgery , receptor
Summary• This paper focuses on one aspect of a study of elderly orthopaedic patients, namely pain control. • One‐hundred patients aged 70 years and over were interviewed on up to five occasions during admission to an acute orthopaedic unit. • The majority of patients had significant post‐operative and/or post‐trauma pain, and backache and joint pain were reported frequently. • None of the patients received more than half of the maximum prescribed number of doses of opioid analgesics over a period of 48 h following surgery. • The well‐recognized problem of inadequate pain relief among hospital in‐patients is discussed, in particular its relevance to elderly orthopaedic patients.