Comparison of visual analogue scale and faces rating scale in measuring acute postoperative pain

Several pain assessment tools have been proposed for use in different settings, but neither have been validated for all patients, especially Iranians. We conducted this study to compare the accuracy of two most commonly used tools for evaluation of pain intensity in a group of postoperative Iranian patients. All postoperative patients admitted to the surgical wards of Masih Daneshvari and Rasoul Akram Hospitals, Tehran, Iran were studied. During a two-month period, patients were evaluated for pain intensity within 24 hours of operation. Visual analogue scale and faces rating scale were used for this purpose. Eighty-two patients were enrolled into the study. Forty-eight patients underwent obstetrics and 34 had general surgeries. Using Spearman analysis, we found a linear correlation between the results of the two methods (P=0.952). Using multivariate analysis, we found that none of the variables such as age, gender, and education level had significant effects on correlation between visual analogue scale and faces rating scale. Visual analogue scale and faces rating scale are two pain assessment tools that can be used interchangeably for evaluation of acute postoperative pain.