Is the Nociception Coma Scale-Revised a Useful Clinical Tool for Managing Pain in Patients with Disorders of Consciousness?

OBJECTIVES: Our objective was to assess the clinical interest of the Nociception Coma Scale Revised (NCS-R) in pain management of patients with disorders of consciousness. METHODS: Thirty-nine patients with potential painful conditions (e.g., due to fractures, decubitus ulcers or spasticity) were assessed during nursing cares before and after the administration of an analgesic treatment tailored to each patient's clinical status. In addition to the NCS-R, the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was used before and during treatment in order to observe fluctuations in consciousness. Twenty-three of them had no analgesic treatment prior to the assessment whereas the analgesic treatment has been adapted in the other 16 patients. We performed non-parametric Wilcoxon tests to investigate the difference in the NCS-R and GCS total scores but also in the NCS-R subscores before versus during treatment. The effect of the level of consciousness and the etiology were assessed using a U Mann Whitney. RESULTS: NCS-R total scores were statistically lower during treatment when compared to the scores obtained before treatment. We also found that the motor, verbal and facial expression subscores were lower during treatment than before treatment. On the other hand, we found no difference between the GCS total scores obtained before versus during treatment. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest that the NCS-R is an interesting clinical tool for pain management. Besides, this tool seems useful when a balance is needed between reduced pain and preserved level of consciousness in patients with disorders of consciousness.