Integrative Review: Postcraniotomy Pain

I chose to review the article titled, “Integrative review: postcraniotomy pain in the brain tumour patient” by Rebecca Guilkey, Dian Von Ah, Janet Carpenter, Cynthia Stone, and Claire Draucker in 2016. This article focused on how craniotomies are known to be painful, but little attention is paid to postcraniotomy pain. This study was narrowed down to focusing on postcraniotomy pain in adults 21 or older who are patients in intensive care units (ICU). The study stated that postop pain in craniotomy patients is often associated with nausea and vomiting, anxiety, and depression and is often left untreated because of a concern that it may mask neurological changes. But through the study, they learned that under-treating this pain commonly caused