"That Blood Pressure Cuff Really Hurts!" What Every CRNA Should Know About Pain Sensitivity-That Blood Pressure Cuff Really Hurts! What Every CRNA Should Know About Pain Sensitivity

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Jennifer Squibbs, from the Professional Development Committee, introduces the afternoon session and makes some announcements. Evaluations for CE credit are necessary and available through the AANA meetings app, with a submission deadline of Monday, September 9th at noon Pacific time. The next Annual Congress will be in Nashville, Tennessee in 2025, with abstract submissions starting August 14th.<br /><br />After the announcements, Dr. Lori Shirley and PhD student Nanye Noquiti take the stage to present on pain sensitivity and its importance for CRNAs. They discuss the concept of pain sensitivity, how it is measured, and why it is essential in patient care, specifically focusing on the use of Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST). <br /><br />Different QST methods are explained, such as thermal testing, pressure pain threshold, and temporal summation, and their roles in assessing pain sensitivity. Dr. Shirley shares their current research, noting the complexity and varying results of QST studies in predicting postoperative pain and opioid use. Preliminary findings suggest a gender difference in QST's predictive power, being more correlated with postoperative pain in males than females.<br /><br />Nanye then outlines her dissertation plans, building on Dr. Shirley’s research to develop a feasible and predictive clinical QST protocol for preoperative assessments in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. The session concludes with a Q&A, covering topics such as genetic testing, catastrophizing scale, and practical implementation of QST in clinical settings.

Keywords

Jennifer Squibbs

Professional Development Committee

AANA meetings app

Annual Congress 2025

pain sensitivity

Quantitative Sensory Testing

postoperative pain

gender difference

total knee arthroplasty