Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on chronic pain management: Looking for the best way to deliver care

Filomena Puntillo; Mariateresa Giglio; Nicola Brienza; Omar Viswanath; Ivan Urits; Alan D Kaye; Joseph Pergolizzi; Antonella Paladini; Giustino Varrassi

doi:10.1016/j.bpa.2020.07.001

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on chronic pain management: Looking for the best way to deliver care

Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol. 2020 Sep;34(3):529-537. doi: 10.1016/j.bpa.2020.07.001. Epub 2020 Jul 17.

Authors

Filomena Puntillo¹, Mariateresa Giglio², Nicola Brienza³, Omar Viswanath⁴, Ivan Urits⁵, Alan D Kaye⁶, Joseph Pergolizzi⁷, Antonella Paladini⁸, Giustino Varrassi⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", 70124 Bari, Italy.
² Anesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Unit, Policlinico Hospital, 70124 Bari, Italy.
³ Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", 70124 Bari, Italy.
⁴ Valley Pain Consultants - Envision Physician Services, Phoenix, AZ, USA; University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, Department of Anesthesiology, Phoenix, AZ, USA; Creighton University School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Omaha, NE, USA; Louisiana State University Health Shreveport, Department of Anesthesiology, Shreveport, LA, USA.
⁵ Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ Louisiana State University Health Shreveport, Department of Anesthesiology, Shreveport, LA, USA.
⁷ NEMA Res Group, Naples, FL, USA.
⁸ Department of MESVA, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.
⁹ Paolo Procacci Fdn, Via Tacito 7, 00193 Roma, Italy; World Institute of Pain, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. Electronic address: giuvarr@gmail.com.

Abstract

Although pain treatment has been described as a fundamental human right, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced healthcare systems worldwide to redistribute healthcare resources toward intensive care units and other COVID-19 dedicated sites. As most chronic pain services were subsequently deemed non-urgent, all outpatient and elective interventional procedures have been reduced or interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to reduce the risk of viral spread. The shutdown of pain services jointly to the home lockdown imposed by governments has affected chronic pain management worldwide with additional impact on patients' psychological health. Therefore, the aim of this review is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on chronic pain treatment and to address what types of strategies can be implemented or supported in order to overcome imposed limitations in delivery of chronic pain patient care.

Keywords: COVID-19; chronic pain; interventional pain; telemedicine.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Betacoronavirus*
COVID-19
Chronic Pain / therapy*
Coronavirus Infections / prevention & control*
Humans
Pain Management / methods*
Pandemics / prevention & control*
Pneumonia, Viral / prevention & control*
SARS-CoV-2