Abstract
Purpose
To assess the validity of simplified pain scales, including the Simplified Faces Pain Scale (S-FPS) and Simplified Concrete Ordinal Scale (S-COS) in preschool-age children who underwent adenotonsillectomy (T&A) by comparing the values of simplified pain scales with the Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R) and the Faces, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) observational pain scale.
Methods
The present study consisted of 100 pediatric patients between the ages of 3 and 6 years old who had T&A. A two-step pain assessment approach with S-FPS and S-COS and FPS-R and FLACC pain scales was performed with children with the help of their parents or caregivers at the 1st, 6th and 12th hours, and over the 7 days after surgery.
Results
The mean scores of S-FPS and S-COS were higher than the mean FPS-R scores for each time point for all age groups. The total number of children reporting no pain was higher for FPS-R than S-FPS and S-COS for each age group and the difference was significant for 3-, 4- and 5- year olds. S-FPS, S-COS and FPS-R showed a moderate correlation with FLACC in all age groups, whereas the correlation values were not significantly different between the tests.
Conclusion
In the present study, we found that S-FPS and S-COS were valid options for estimating pain in preschool children including 3- and 4-year-olds who underwent T&A.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Prof. von Bauer for permitting the use of S-FPS and S-COS and for his valuable contribution.
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AB conceived the study. MŞ, SA and AK collected the data. AB, MŞ, SA and AK analyzed and interpreted the data. AB drafted the manuscript. AB revised and approved the final manuscript.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Written informed consent was obtained from the participants and the study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Kayseri Erciyes University School of Medicine (Reference: 2019/110).
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Bayram, A., Şahin, M., Altıparmak, S. et al. The validity of simplified self-report pain intensity assessment tools in preschool-age children undergoing adenotonsillectomy. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 277, 2597–2602 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-06029-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-020-06029-0