[Pain assessment of severely injured patients 2 years after trauma]

Trauma patients often suffer from persisting pain even years after injury, and data on long-term pain management is lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of persisting pain and health-related quality of life (HrQoL) among trauma victims 2 years after injury. Furthermore, the frequency of pain specialist consultation and the quality of outpatient pain management, including phamacological management, was assessed.

We analyzed prospectively collected data on severely injured adult patients treated between 2008-2011 at the Cologne Merheim Medical Center (CMMC)/Germany.  Data included the 'Polytrauma Outcome Profile' and a standardized questionnaire on outpatient pain management. Exclusion criteria were death, inability to answer the questionnaire due to cognitive disabilities and lack of language knowledge.

207/391 (53 %) data sets were available for analysis, presenting a typical trauma collective with injury severity of ISS 19, predominantly male and a mean age of 44 years. 2 years after trauma 59 % still reported that they suffered from severe persisting pain; 53 % of these patients were under pharmacological pain medication. Only 1/5 of the patients with severe persisting pain was treated by a pain specialist. Successful treatment options do exist; improvement of treatment is required.