A scoping review of qualitative studies on pre-hospital analgesia administration and practice.

BACKGROUND: Pain is an exceedingly common complaint in the pre-hospital setting. Despite advancements in organizational protocols and guidelines, many emergency medical services (EMS) systems still fail to provide optimal pain management. This scoping review thus aimed to map the body of qualitative literature pertaining to factors influencing pre-hospital analgesia administration and practice in order to clarify concepts and understanding as well as to identify any knowledge gaps. METHODS: The review protocol was guided by the framework outlined by Arksey and O'Malley and ensuing recommendations made by Levac and colleagues. Five databases were searched from inception till October 26, 2021, namely MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, The Cochrane Library, and Scopus. The search strategy was developed in consultation with a medical information specialist. A total of 5848 records were screened by abstract and title by four independent researchers. 199 records were included for full text review. From these, 15 articles were eligible for thematic analysis based on pre-defined inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Included studies found that practitioner, patient, and environmental factors influenced the administration and practice of pre-hospital analgesia. Key barriers included the difficulty in assessing pain, poor inter-professional relationship, knowledge deficits, stress and anxiety, and miscellaneous factors, such as concerns over drug-seeking behaviours. Some possible solutions were proposed, and pre-hospital EMS systems and healthcare institutions could consider bridging some of these gaps. There was a notable paucity of Asian studies, and a variety of EMS settings with different protocols and workflows were examined, hence systemic factors including guidelines and legislations cannot and should not be generalized across every healthcare system. CONCLUSION: The factors influencing pre-hospital analgesia administration and practice remain incompletely understood. Existing tools and practice guidelines were also inadequate. This scoping review provided an overarching perspective of the extant literature, highlighting some of the significant barriers, enablers, and areas for further research.

Effects of surgery on neurocognitive function in patients with glioma: a meta-analysis of immediate post-operative and long-term follow-up neurocognitive outcomes.

PURPOSE: This study aims to identify the neuropsychological tests commonly used for assessment in each neurocognitive domain, and quantify the post-operative changes in neurocognitive function in the immediate post-operation and follow-up. METHODS: With the use of the PubMed, a comprehensive search of the English literature was performed following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. There were 1021 publications identified for screening. Standardized mean differences (SMD) in neuropsychological task performance were calculated both for immediate post-operation (up to 1 week) and follow-up (up to 6 months). RESULTS: Out of 12 studies which met the inclusion criteria, 11 studies were analyzed in this meta-analysis, with a total of 313 patients (age range 18-82, 50% males) with intracranial gliomas (45% high-grade, 55% low-grade). Complex attention, language and executive function were the most frequently tested neurocognitive domains. Surgery had a positive impact in the domains of complex attention, language, learning and memory tasks in the immediate post-operative period and sustained improvement at follow-up. In contrast, surgery was found to negatively impact performance for executive function in the immediate post-operative period with sustained decline in performance in the long term. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis suggests that surgery for glioma confers a benefit for the domains of complex attention, language, learning and memory, while negatively affecting executive function, in the periods immediately after surgery and at 6 months follow-up. In addition, awake surgery seemed to confer a beneficial effect on neurocognitive functions. Future research should attempt to standardize a battery of neuropsychological tests for patients undergoing surgical resection for glioma, perhaps with a particular focus on executive function.