E-Poster Abstracts

Abstract

C CHAN, T VANCAILLIE and E HOWARD

Introduction: In 2017, a senate inquiry was undertaken after hundreds of Australian women reported serious pain and side effects from the use of transvaginal mesh implants, including incontinence, dyspareunia, persistent pain. In response to the high numbers of severely affected women, we customised our clinical approach with dual consult (pain physician and pain education osteopath) to maximise patient outcomes.

Aims: The aim of this pilot study is to substantiate that neuroscience-based pain education, as an integral component of management, can benefit patient's understanding, emotions, and coping skills related to their pain experience.

Methods: Thirty-three patients who presented (and consented for research) in the past six months with pelvic pain were randomly identified within the database of the Women's Health and Research Institute of Australia and asked a series of pre-selected questions.

Results: Twenty-one patients participated. Nineteen patients responded that it was their first experience of a dual consult. Twenty patients found the experience valuable with a score of 4 or 5 on a 5-point Likert scale with the greatest value of the dual consult being the opportunity to ask more questions.

Similarly, twenty and sixteen patients responded with a score of 4 or 5 for recommending to family and for finding what they paid for worth it respectively.

Discussion: This small-cohort retrospective audit supports that single-session neuroscience-based education (listening to and explaining individualised management) is valuable in conjunction with spending time to clinically examine patients. This pilot qualitative study calls for further research into the impact of dual consultation on outcome measures.