Pain assessment in chronic pancreatitis: A comparative review of methods

Abstract Background Patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) frequently report chronic abdominal pain that adversely impacts their quality of life. Assessment of pain in CP is required for clinical management and clinical studies. International consensus guidelines recognized a lack of specific and validated pain assessment tools for CP. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review is to identify and compare all clinical studies that assessed pain in the context of a treatment for pain in CP. Methods A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane Library and Ovid MEDLINE. The search identified all intervention studies for pain in CP and the pain assessment tools used based on pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results Of 341 articles identified, 137 studies were included. Pain assessment tools were both general and CP-specific. The latter were used in only 22 (16%) studies. Despite recommendations the aspects of pain assessed were limited and variable between tools. Validation of these tools in CP patients was limited to quality of life measures. None of the pain assessment tools evaluated duration of pain and postprandial pain. Conclusions There are no published pain assessment tools for CP that includes all relevant aspects of pain. There is the need to develop a comprehensive and validated pain assessment tool for patients with CP to standardised pain assessment, identify likely underlying pain mechanisms, help select appropriate treatments, report outcomes from interventions, improve clinical communication and aid the allocation of patients to clinical trials.