Pain management in patients with bone fractures

Introduction: Pain is a subjectively unpleasant and unequivocally negative sensory and emotional impression that negatively affects the patient in various ways. Objective: To examine the percentage of analgesic and non-pharmacological pain therapy use in patients suspected of having a bone fracture. To examine are there differences in relation to the mechanism of injury and the application of pain therapy. Material and methods: 245 patients are included in the study. Data were collected from protocols of the Institute for Emergency Medicine Novi Sad and the Emergency Medicine Service Bečej for the period from 1.1.2024. to 30.6.2024. Results: Of all patients 74.69% were immobilized. Among them, 40.44% received analgesic, 59.56% of immobilized patients were not covered by analgesic pharmacotherapy. In 22.45% of all treated patients, neither immobilization or or analgesic measures were applied. Among the total number of non-immobilized patients, 11.29% received an analgesic (χ²=22.128;p<0.001). For these patients, tramadol 100mg was administered in 85.71% of cases, while ketorolac 30mg was given in 14.29% of cases. In the group of immobilized patients who received an analgesic, the most common was the administration of metamizole-sodium 2.5g (28.38%), while the least prescribed was diclofenac 75mg (4.05%) (χ²=25.812;p<0,001). Conclusion: There are significant deviations in the application of measures for analgesia in patients with suspected bone fractures, favoring non-pharmacological measures. No significant differences were observed regarding the injury mechanism and the decision to apply measures of analgesis in patients with suspected bone fractures.