Do patients with acute abdominal pain wait unduly long for analgesia?
IAIN S. TAIT, MAGDALENA V. IONESCU and ALFRED CUSCHIERI Department of Surgery, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, U.K. 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 2.3h with severe pain (n = 84) vs. 6.3h 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 analges
