Assessing pain: how and why?

Historical pain was chosen as it was likely to be a more stable pain experience than acute experimental pain. This opinion that measurement of pain is useful holds true today as, although we strive to achieve good peri-operative pain management, almost one fifth of our patients continue to experience severe pain in the first 24 h after surgery [13]. Keywords: pain; pain measurement; visual analogue pain scale EN pain pain measurement visual analogue pain scale 559 562 4 03/04/21 20210401 NES 210401 Michael Rosen's 1976 paper on the reliability of the linear analogue for evaluating pain - now more commonly called a visual analogue scale (VAS) - starts with the words: " I pain is difficult to measure i " [1]. From these recommendations, the modern inpatient pain service evolved, with pain assessment in hospitals today continuing to focus on pain intensity evaluated with the numerical rating, visual analogue or verbal rating scales. [Extracted from the article]