[Acute pain management in paediatrics and geriatrics - pain assessment: which scale for which patient?]

In the perioperative period acute pain is measured by one-dimensional scales concentrating on pain intensity. As part of a quality assurance procedure pain assessment is to be exercised during periods of rest and activity. Pain is a subjective experience. That is why self-report is the golden standard of pain assessment. Only in case self-report is not available due to mental development or to cognitive restraints, it has to be replaced by behavioural observation. Established scales are the visual analogue scale (VAS), the verbal rating scale (VRS), and the numerical rating scale (NRS) with a preference for the NRS. Scales that measure pain in children are the Faces-Pain-Scale and behavioural observation scales. The assessment of non verbal adults also has to rely on behavioural observation.