Impact of Individualized Versus Weight-Based Pain Protocols on Patient Satisfaction for Patients With Sickle Cell Disease Experiencing a Vaso-Occlusive Episode

Introduction: National guidelines for the acute management of sickle cell disease vaso-occlusive episodes recommend the use of a patient-specific or a weight-based protocol. The authors compared patient satisfaction with pain management between those randomized to receive either a patient-specific or weight-based pain protocol in the COMPARE-VOE randomized control trial. Methods: Participants with sickle cell disease were pre-enrolled and patient satisfaction with pain management was assessed at the time of discharge from the 6 participating emergency departments. Patients were randomized to receive a patient-specific or weight-based pain protocol. The authors compared continuous variables between the patient-specific and weight-based protocols with the 2-sample t test and categorical variables by the chi-square test. Results: The authors enrolled 104 participants. Compared with satisfaction with pain management on previous ED visits, more participants in the patient-specific protocol group than the weight-based group (57.1% vs 31.8%; P =.02) were satisfied with pain management. Most who were discharged home (91.2%) felt their pain was sufficiently relieved to be discharged home. Discussion: These findings support evidence-based guidelines to manage vaso-occlusive episodes in emergency departments. Patient-specific protocols can be implemented by partnering with local sickle cell disease providers to make protocols available in the emergency department.