Pain management of pancreatic cancer patients with high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy.

Abstract This study was performed to evaluate cancer pain control of high-Intensity focused ultrasound ablation (HIFU) and to manage the HIFU treatment pain in advanced pancreatic cancer patients with analgesics. We collected 71 locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients treated with HIFU from 2013 March to 2014 January in our hospital. The cancer pain (pre-HIFU and two weeks after HIFU) and HIFU treatment pain were evaluated respectively. The numeric rating scale (NRS) was used as the tool of pain evaluation. The related factors with pains were analyzed. The 70.42% cancer painless rate before HIFU was improved to 92.96% (P<0.05) 2 weeks after HIFU in 71 advanced pancreatic cancer patents without analgesics adjustment. The HIFU treatment pain occurred in 42 of 71 treated patients (59.15 %). The average duration was 3.93 days and pain score was 3.22. HIFU can improve cancer pain relief further in the advanced pancreatic cancer patients with third ladder analgesics, meanwhile HIFU treatment pain can be managed easy because of its short duration and low pain score.