Assessing Post-operative Pain with Self-reports via the Jerrycan Pain Scale in Rural Kenya

Area of Science:

• Pain Management
• Medical Devices
• Patient Outcomes

Background:

• Effective perioperative pain management is crucial for patient outcomes.
• Accurate pain assessment is challenging and context-dependent.
• Visual analogue scales (VAS) are used for pain measurement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the utility of the Jerrycan visual analogue scale for post-operative pain assessment.
• To validate the Jerrycan scale against standard pain scales.
• To evaluate patient preference for the Jerrycan scale.

Main Methods:

• Prospective assessment of 241 inpatients undergoing surgery.
• Comparison of Jerrycan scale with Verbal, Hands, and Faces scales (0-5 range).
• Agreement analysis using kappa values and Spearman's rank coefficients.

Main Results:

• Mean age 34.8 years, 68% female, 61% spinal anesthesia.
• Mean pain score across all scales was 2.5.
• Jerrycan (0.50) and Faces (0.43) scales showed moderate agreement with the Verbal scale.
• Patients expressed a preference for the Jerrycan Pain Scale.

Conclusions:

• The Jerrycan pain scale demonstrates comparable scores and reasonable agreement with established pain scales.
• Patient preference and ease of use suggest potential for the Jerrycan scale in resource-limited settings.
• The Jerrycan scale may be adaptable for post-operative pain management in similar contexts.