A Systematic Review of Postoperative Pain Outcome Measurements Utilised in Regional Anesthesia Randomized Controlled Trials.

E Pushpanathan, T Setty, B Carvalho, P Sultan

Open access · goldAbstract readReview

In one paragraph

Review in Anesthesiology research and practice, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

7citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it

1.7field-weighted citation impact, top 17% of its field

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.

Ketamine and esketamine for postoperative analgesia in gynaecological surgery.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026
Pooled it
Efficacy of different routes of acetaminophen administration for postoperative pain in children: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2024
Pooled it
Perineural local anaesthetic catheter after major lower limb amputation trial (PLACEMENT): results from a randomised controlled feasibility trial.BMJ open · 2019
Trial
Adherence to CONSORT-PRO Extension Guidelines for Patient-Reported Outcomes in Randomized Controlled Trials Focused on Peripheral Nerve Blocks: A Meta-epidemiological Study.Pain and therapy · 2025
Article
Characteristics, completion and publication of PROSPERO records in regional anesthesia for acute perioperative pain.Journal of comparative effectiveness research · 2023
Article
fNIRS brain measures of ongoing nociception during surgical incisions under anesthesia.Neurophotonics · 2022
Article
Pain assessment in clinical trials: a narrative review.Annals of translational medicine · 2021
Review

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

E PushpanathanDepartment of Anaesthesia, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-5190-2221

T SettyDepartment of Anaesthesia, University College Hospitals London NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.

B CarvalhoDepartment of Anesthesia, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4919-4542

P SultanDepartment of Anaesthesia, University College Hospitals London NHS Foundation Trust, University College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-7770-0289

University College Hospital · GBGuy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust · GBStanford University · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionRegional anesthesia is a rapidly growing subspecialty. There are few published meta-analyses exploring pain outcome measures utilised in regional anesthesia randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which may be due to heterogeneity in outcomes assessed. This systematic review explores postoperative pain outcomes utilised in regional anesthesia RCTs.

methodsA literature search was performed using three databases (Medline, Embase, and CINAHL). Regional anesthesia RCTs with postoperative pain as a primary outcome were included if written in English and published in one of the top 20 impact factor journals between 2005 and 2017. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias.

resultsFrom the 31 included articles, 15 different outcome measures in total were used to assess postoperative pain. The most commonly (16/31) used outcome measures were verbal numerical grading of pain out of 10, total opioid consumption, and visual analogue scale 10 cm (VAS). The need for analgesia was used as an outcome measure where studies did not use a pain rating score. Ten studies reported pain scores on activity and 27/31 studies utilised ≥2 pain outcomes. Time of measurement of pain score also varied with a total of 51 different time points used in total.

conclusionAnalysis of the articles demonstrated heterogeneity and inconsistency in choice of pain outcome and time of measurement within regional anesthesia studies. Identification of these pain outcomes utilised can help to create a definitive list of core outcomes, which may guide future researchers when designing such studies.

Identifiers

PMID30151005

DOI10.1155/2018/9050239

PMCPMC6087609

OpenAlexW2883252321

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.