Acute Pain in Older Adults: Recommendations for Assessment and Treatment

The management of acute pain in older adults (age 65 or greater) requires special attention due to various physiologic, cognitive, functional, and social issues that may change with aging. Especially in the postoperative setting, there are significant complications that can occur if pain is not trea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnesthesiology clinics Vol. 37; no. 3; p. 507
Main Authors Rajan, Jay, Behrends, Matthias
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.09.2019
Subjects
Acute Pain - diagnosis
Acute Pain - drug therapy
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Analgesics - administration & dosage
Analgesics - therapeutic use
Anesthesia, Conduction
Humans
Pain Management - methods
Postsurgical care
Anesthesia
Acute pain
Elderly
Geriatrics
Pain medicine
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Summary:The management of acute pain in older adults (age 65 or greater) requires special attention due to various physiologic, cognitive, functional, and social issues that may change with aging. Especially in the postoperative setting, there are significant complications that can occur if pain is not treated adequately for elderly patients. In this article, the authors describe these changes in detail and discuss how pain should be assessed appropriately in older patients. In addition, the authors detail the unique risks and benefits of several mainstream analgesic medications as well as interventional treatments for elderly patients. The authors' goal is to provide recommendations for health care providers on appropriately recognizing and treating pain in a safe, effective manner for aging patients.
ISSN:1932-2275
DOI:10.1016/j.anclin.2019.04.009