Inadequate pain management in prehospital emergency care: a retrospective study from Krapina-Zagorje County.

AIM: To assess the type of analgesics administered and their frequency of administration in pre-hospital pain management in Krapina-Zagorje County, Croatia.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed the data from 86 573 patients treated by the Emergency Department of Krapina-Zagorje County from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2022. Data were obtained through the "e-Hitna" program. The inclusion criterion was a possible occurrence of pain based on the International Classification of Diseases diagnosis in patients who were treated by emergency team 1. We collected data on the type of analgesic and the frequency of administration according to age, the main diagnosis, emergency index, and the visual analog scale (VAS) score.

RESULTS

In 75% of the patients (64 938), analgesics were not administered. When analgesics were administered (21 635; 25%), physicians mostly opted for non-opioid analgesics (15480, 71.6%). Opioid analgesia was usually the treatment of choice in palliative care. Tramadol was administered significantly more often than morphine or pethidine (P<0.001, χ2 test).

CONCLUSION

Despite wide accessibility of analgesics, pain is still not treated adequately in the Emergency Department of Krapina-Zagorje County.