FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE NEGATIVE RESULTS OF TREATMENT OF COMBATANTS' PAIN AFTER MINE-BLAST WOUNDS DURING THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Abstract

Introduction: In 83.3% of cases, pain in combatants who sustained mine-blast injuries during the war in Ukraine becomes chronic. Chronic pain leads to a number of negative aspects that affect the quality of life of combatants, and when they return to military service after treatment for professions that require people to act under pressure, it increases the risk not only for them but also for their teammates and the mission. Therefore, the issue of pain chronicity in this category of patients requires further study, and the identification of factors that influence the frequency of chronicity can potentially improve the results of treatment of this category of patients.
 The aim: to identify factors that influence the negative results of pain treatment in combatants after mine-blast wounds during the war in Ukraine
 Materials and methods: We analyzed the treatment of 660 combatants with mine-blast wounds. Treatment outcomes were assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS). Groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney test and the chi-square test with a continuity correction. To analyze the association of the risk of a negative treatment outcome with the factor characteristics, we used the method of building univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. The quality of the models was assessed by the area under the ROC curve (AUC). The odds ratio was calculated to quantify the degree of influence of the factor attribute.
 Results: It was found that the factors of negative results of pain treatment in combatants with mine-blast wounds are: 1) method of pain treatment (p<0.001), OR=0.06 (95% CI 0.04-0.09); 2) high intensity of pain according to VAS on admission (p<0.001), OR=3.16 (95% CI 2.52-3.98); 3) anesthetic risk according to ASA (p=0.049) OR=0.67 (0.45-0. 99); 4) number of injured anatomical body parts (p=0.015), OR=1.17 (95% CI 1.03-1.32); 5) a combination of indicators: method of pain treatment, patient age and number of injured anatomical body parts AUC=0.82 (95% CI 0.79-0.85).
 Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that if combatants with mine-blast wounds use a method of pain treatment that does not provide reliable control over the intensity of pain, then during evacuation to a medical facility, such pain becomes high-intensity pain. In addition, the conditions of the injury (combat conditions) and the injury itself cause a significant anesthetic risk according to the ASA. Such patients are associated with a higher risk of chronic pain. In the future, in-depth studies are needed to demonstrate the effectiveness or benefits of combining pain management with regional anesthesia methods. High-quality pain control during the medical evacuation of wounded from the battlefield to a medical facility could potentially improve the treatment outcomes of these combatants and reduce the incidence of pain chronicity.