Evaluation of the sociodemographic characteristics of patients applied for chronic pain and the applicable interventional pain management

Objective: In our study, we aimed to evaluate the sociodemographic characteristics of patients who applied to our clinic with chronic pain, their medical and invasive treatments, and their response to treatment. Method: Patients who applied to Necmettin Erbakan University Meram Medical Faculty Hospital Algology Clinic between January 2021 and December 2022 due to chronic pain were reviewed retrospectively. Repeated applications were recorded as a single application. Sociodemographic characteristics of the patients, pain type, VAS scores at the first admission before and after the treatment, previous treatments, medical and interventional procedures were recorded. Type of pain; cancer and non-cancerous; In non-cancer pain, it was divided according to the body region in which the pain occurred. Results: 2707 patients were included in the study. Of the patients, 1697 (62.7%) were female and 1010 (37.3%) were male. Their ages ranged from 18 to 95, and the mean age was 55.7±15.7. 1954 (72.2%) were married, 326 (12%) were widowed, 427 (15.8%) were single; 261 (9.6%) had low income, 1972 (72.8%) had medium income and 474 (17.5%) had high income. The most common non-cancer referral reasons are; low back pain (37%), neuropathic pain (14.2%) and joint pain (10.1%). When pre-treatment pain severity and post-treatment pain severity were compared in patients presenting with cancer, low back, head and neuropathic pain, the decrease in pain severity after treatment was statistically significant. While 45.7% (n:1236) of the patients underwent an invasive procedure together with medical treatment, the most common interventional procedure was epidural steroid procedure. The reduction of pain intensity in the invasive procedure group was statistically significant in all admitted patients. Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that patients with chronic pain who applied to our Algology outpatient clinic were mostly in the adult age group and had non-cancer pain, and weak opioids, especially NSAIDs, were preferred in the pre admission treatment. It was observed that pain levels decreased to acceptable limits with both medical and medical/invasive applications. Keywords: Interventional Treatment, Chronic Pain, VAS