Boaz G Samolsky Dekel
University of Bologna, Italy
Title: Diagnostic prognostic tool for breakthrough pain
Biography
Biography: Boaz G Samolsky Dekel
Abstract
In patients with chronic pain, Breakthrough pain (BTP) is a transient exacerbation of pain that occurs either spontaneously or in relation to a specific predictable or unpredictable trigger despite relative stable and adequately controlled background pain; BTP is usually related to background pain and is typically of rapid onset, severe in intensity and generally self limiting with a mean duration of 30 minutes and has traditionally been managed by the administration of supplemental analgesia at a dose proportional to the total background opioid dose. BTP shows variable prevalence in different clinical contexts both among cancer and non-cancer patients. While the considerable clinical burden of BTP is generally recognized, available common pain assessment tools are insufficient for its identification and diagnostic tools for BTP with demonstrated formal validation and prognostic capability are lacking. An innovated approach for BTP diagnosis may come from its prognosis features. Prognosis refers to the risk of future health outcomes in people with a given health condition. Prognosis research seeks to recognize and ameliorate future outcomes in patients with a given health condition and it provides crucial evidence for translating findings from clinical research to clinical practice. A useful prognostic model provides accurate predictions that inform stakeholders, supports clinical research, and allows for informed decisions to ameliorate patient outcomes. We have developed and validated a simple prognostic/diagnostic tool which may easily predict the likelihood of the presence of BTP in patients with potential clinical features of BTP. This has an important impact on therapeutic decisions.