Addressing pain in burn injury

SummaryThe pain associated with burn injury can be challenging to treat. It is frequently time consuming and resource dependent, and as a result is often poorly managed. The pain experienced is patient specific with numerous factors influencing the nature and the intensity of the pain. Many of these factors will alter during the course of treatment and rehabilitation. Pain assessment should be performed regularly with the aid of one of the scoring systems available. The management of burn pain should be tailored to the underlying cause (background pain, breakthrough pain, procedural pain, post-operative pain or chronic and complex pain associated with the healing process). Although opiates remain the mainstay of treatment of burn pain they are not always effective or appropriate. Non-opiate drug therapy should always be considered as it maybe more effective and better suited to treating the complex nature of burn pain. Non-pharmacological interventions are an important adjuvant to drug treatment. The most effective approach uses all of these methods, is flexible, has multidisciplinary input and is tailored to the individual patients needs.