Pain Committee’s latest webinar brings global experts together to discuss the management of acute pain.
On 10 December 2022, WFSA’s Pain Committee hosted their second webinar, Managing Acute Pain: a Call to Action. The webinar, for which drew 500 registrations within days of its announcement, brought together global experts to discuss the standards and challenges of managing acute pain across the world.
Pain Committee Chair, Dr Clare Roques, introduced the webinar alongside organiser and committee member Dr Gauhar Afshan.
Session topics
The speakers were split into two panels, ‘Core Standards for Managing Acute Pain: A Global Perspective,’ and ‘Evolving Challenges for Acute Pain Services Across the World.’
The first panel was moderated by Dr Afreen Siddiqui (USA) and was composed of Dr Eman Nada (USA), Dr Ana Schwartzman (Uruguay), and Dr Mary Cardosa (Malaysia).
The panellists discussed the importance of treating acute pain properly, the potential barriers that may arise, and simple systems for good pain management. The session also covered standard operating procedures and strategies to help patients when a pain block fades.
The second session on acute pain services around the world was moderated by Dr Shakaib Chugtai (UK) with Pain committee members Dr Gaston Nyirigira (Rwanda) and Dr Abudullah Kabi (Saudi Arabia), Dr Asif Gul Kayani (Pakistan) making up the panel.
They discussed the current acute pain set-up in developing countries and the need to focus on advocacy in lower-income countries. There was also talk on the use of ketamine and the advantages of better communication among patient and provider in the digital era.
Key themes
The importance of a multidisciplinary, multimodal, and patient-centric approach to relieving acute pain was a common theme running throughout the webinar.
“[Ultimately] what the patient remembers from their hospital visit is whether their pain was treated well or not”
Dr Mary Cardosa
The benefits of using non-pharmacological pain management techniques – such as relaxation, social support and ice and heat compression – alongside medication was explored, though Dr Nyirigira noted that such approaches are not always possible in lower-income countries.
There was also talk on opioid use. The risks, misconceptions and concerns from both patient and provider in both LMICs and HICs was highlighted. All panellists praised the idea of better standards of education in both LMIC and HICs for both provider and patient, so informed providers can educate patients on opioid misconceptions and concerns.
Watch the full webinar on the WFSA YouTube channel
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Further reading
Watch the webinar – Acute Pain Management: A Call to Action
