Reevaluation of the critical-care pain observation tool in intubated adults after cardiac surgery.

Background: Pain assessment in critically ill patients who are intubated, sedated, and unable to verbalize their needs remains a challenge. No universally accepted pain assessment tool is used in all intensive care units.

Objectives: To examine concurrent validation of scores on the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool for a painful and a non-painful procedure and to examine interrater reliability of the scores between 2 nurse raters.