Acute Pain Management: Scientific Evidence

Abstract

This is the fourth edition of Acute Pain Management: Scientific Evidence. The first three were published in 1999, 2005 and 2010, respectively. This fourth edition sums up the evidence currently available to assist health professionals in the management of acute pain. Additional literature has been reviewed from August 2009 to August 2014. Levels of evidence have been documented according to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) designation (NHMRC 1999). The Jadad scoring instrument was used to score the quality of all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) (Jadad 1996). Key iv Acute Pain Management: Scientific Evidence messages for each topic are specified with the highest level of evidence available to support them, or with a symbol showing that they are based on clinical experience or expert opinion.