Abstract: Background/Objectives: Pain assessment scales provide a clear clinical benefit in patients who are unable to self-report. The Nociception Coma Scale-Revised-adapted for Intubated patients (NCS-R-I) was developed to assess pain in patients with acquired brain injury who are unable to self-report. However, this instrument has not yet been translated and validated for use in Spain. The objective was to translate the Nociception Coma Scale-Revised-adapted for Intubated patients (NCS-R-I) into Spanish and to assess the reliability and validity of the Spanish version in patients with brain injury.
Methods: This study was carried out in two phases. First, the scale was translated into Spanish. Next, a psychometric analysis was performed to determine the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the NCS-R-I in 207 critically ill patients with acquired brain injury and disorders of consciousness. Two blinded observers administered the scale at three time points: 5 min before, during, and 15 min after a series of nociceptive and non-nociceptive procedures.
Results: The internal consistency of the NCS-R-I was acceptable (ordinal alpha = 0.60-0.90). Interobserver agreement was good (kappa = 0.80; intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.90). In terms of discriminant validity, the AUC was 0.952 (95% CI: 0.931-0.973). NCS-R-I scores increased significantly during performance of nociceptive procedures compared to scores obtained before and after these procedures, confirming the scale's sensitivity to change. Similarly, during the performance of nociceptive procedures, scores on the NCS-R-I were significantly higher (p < 0.001) than those observed during non-nociceptive procedures.
Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate that the NCS-R-I is a valid, reliable tool for the assessment of pain in patients with acquired brain injury who are unable to self-report.
