Abstract:
Background. Adequate pain management has led to increased comfort in emergency patients, reducing morbidity and improving
long term outcomes.Different painmanagementmodalities have been applied in the emergency department amongwhich systemic
analgesia is commonly used by preceding a nerve block. Several factors have been associated with poor pain management in low
resource setting areas. We aimed to determine pain management modalities and associated factors among emergency surgical
patients. Patients and Methods. After obtaining ethical approval from Ethical Review Committee, 203 volunteer patients were
enrolled. Institutional based cross-sectional prospective study was conducted from April to May 2018 in Gondar University
Specialized Hospital Emergency Department.The severity of pain was measured through Numerical Rating Scale and statistical
analysiswas performed using SPSS statistical package version 23.Descriptive statistics cross-tab and binary logisticswere performed
to identify factors related to pain management in emergency department. Results. A total of 203 patients, 138 (68%) males and 65
(32%) females with response rate of 94%, participated in this study. Among them, 66%patients received analgesia within two hours
of ED presentation with a mean ± SD of 61.0 ± 34.1 minutes. 70.4 % of patients complained of moderate and severe pain after
receiving analgesia.There was a significant difference between trauma and nontrauma patients inmean time of analgesia receiving
and residual pain severity (p < 0.001). Age, trauma, physician pain assessment, and severity of pain were the predicting factors
for analgesia delivery. Conclusion.The overall practice of pain management in Gondar University Specialized Hospital Emergency
Department was not adequate.Therefore, it is vital to implement an objective pain assessment method and documentation of the
pain severity to improve pain management practice
