Do patients with acute abdominal pain wait unduly long for analgesia?

A prospective audit of 100 emergency admissions was carried out to determine local surgical practice for analgesia administration in patients with acute abdominal pain. The main outcome measure investigated was waiting time for analgesia and how this was influenced by (i) severity of pain, (ii) clinical diagnosis, (iii) clinical setting. The data were correlated with the results of a questionnaire on timing of analgesia. Forty percent of patients received analgesia within 1 h, 17% between 1-2 h, and 43% 2-22 h after admission. Mean waiting time was 2.3 h with severe pain (n = 84) vs. 6.3 h with moderate pain (n = 16, p < 0.0001, Mann-Whitney). Clinical diagnosis did not influence timing of analgesia. Fifty-seven per cent received analgesia in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department with a mean wait of 60 min, whereas 43% admitted to the ward without analgesia in the A&E department waited an average of 5.7 h for pain medication (p < 0.0001; Mann-Whitney U-test). This was at variance with local surgical opinion that favoured early analgesia administration (yes-88%), in the absence of a firm diagnosis (yes-79%), although 38% stated that analgesia might mask physical signs. In conclusion, a substantial cohort of patients with acute abdominal pain (43%) wait too long for analgesia. Delays are due to omission of analgesia in A&E, and reluctance of junior staff to administer analgesia for fear of masking physical signs. Clinical guidelines for pain medication in acute surgical emergencies are warranted.