The researchers found that patients with moderate or severe pain were more likely to be younger, female, admitted for longer hospital stays or using psychoactive medications. Surgical patients reported a greater pain severity.
For patients undergoing lower extremity joint replacement, an average pain level of 5 (on a scale of 0 to 10) was reported on the first day after surgery. As a result, the department of orthopedics developed a new protocol to include oral and intravenous medications and allowed the use of epidural morphine outside of the intensive care setting to decrease the pain level to three.
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