ABSTRACT
According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (Loeser and Treede 2008), pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience related to past or potential tissue damage, and patients often may describe their pain in these terms. If it prevails during a relatively short duration, it is known as acute pain, whereas if it persists over a long period of time, it is regarded as chronic pain (Apkarian et al. 2009). Pain is a highly subjective and difficult-to-quantify phenomenon, because it is an individual and personal experience (Giordano et al. 2010), and this subjectivity creates challenges in its description, assessment, and treatment. Instead of being assessed as an isolated value, pain results from multiple aspects (Ong and Seymour 2004; Melzack and Casey 1968; Fernandez and Turk 1992; Holroyd et al. 1996; Kornbluth et al. 2008), such as sensory (e.g., location and intensity), affective (e.g., depression and anxiety), and cognitive (e.g., quality of life). For this reason, patients with pain are called to answer many questionnaires and scores and/or to adopt specific behaviors as a way to treat their pain in all its dimensions such as
12.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 227 12.2 Clinical Decision Support Systems ............................................................228 12.3 Case Study .................................................................................................. 229 12.4 Results ......................................................................................................... 232 12.5 Discussion ................................................................................................... 233 12.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................234 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. 235 References .............................................................................................................. 235
self-monitoring of pain, adherence to prescribed medications, weight control, and/ or daily exercise. In addition, the effect of inadequate pain relief, besides the ethical concerns, may result in premature discharge from the hospital, postoperative complications, a negative impact on function and quality of life (Ashburn and Staats 1999; Langley et al. 2010; Stewart et al. 2003; Roberto and Reynolds 2002; Dalton et al. 2001), and/or an economic burden (Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care and Medicine 2011; Cousins et al. 2000; Sheehan et al. 1996; Zimberg 2003), as well as an interference in the quality of life and/or physical and mental disorders, such as distress and anxiety (Apfelbaum et al. 2003; Taylor and Stanbury 2009; Breivik 1995; Berman et al. 2009; Campbell et al. 2003; Morrison et al. 2003; Wall 1979). Many indicators suggest a continued growth in the number of ambulatory surgeries (Berryman 1987), primarily for economic reasons, so as to reduce the costs of inhospital patient accommodations. These surgical procedures usually cause discomfort and moderate to severe pain in a significant percentage of patients (McGrath et al. 2004; Mulcahy et al. 2011). Therefore, pain management is an essential care component in ambulatory surgical centers and hospital wards.
