Development and Validation of New "SNU Illustrated Pain Rating Scale" as a Tool for Postoperative Pain Assessment

Development and Validation of New "SNU Illustrated Pain Rating Scale" for Effective Assessment of Acute Postoperative Pain: a Comparative Study With Numeric Rating Scale

The numeric rating scale (NRS), one of the most widely used pain scales in clinical practice, although convenient, is often subject to bias because it requires abstract thinking from both the patient and the evaluator. Compared to numbers, traumatic pain, when visualized appropriately, has potential advantage as a means to indicate and communicate the severity of pain. Given that they are standardized in terms of body parts, wound size, and bleeding volume, illustrations of traumatic pain along with external somatic stimuli that caused it can be used to serve as effective visual anchors to supplement a pain scale by giving more concrete information to the patient. The purpose of this study is to develop Seoul National University Illustrated Pain Scale(SNUIPS) using pictures of traumatic pain, and verify the validity and effectiveness of this scale in comparison with those of NRS.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult patients undergoing a gynecological or orthopedic surgery under general anesthesia
• Administered with intravenous patient-controlled analgesia for postoperative pain control
• American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status class I-III patients

Exclusion Criteria:

• Contraindicated against fentanyl
• Unable to communicate
• Aged less than 18, or more than 79
• Weighs less than 40kg or more than 89kg
• Has severe heart disease(s)
• Pregnant