Pain remains the most common complaint of patients presenting to the emergency department. This main reason for patient visitation to emergency department is often forgotten once the primary diagnosis is made. This prospective study recruited adult patients (age >18 year) who had pain as part of their initial complaint at presentation to the emergency department. Relevant data were extracted from patients’ case notes and patients directly. A total of 257 patients, 22 nursing staff and 15 medical staffs were recruited into the study. Our patients’ age ranges from 18 to 86 year old with mean age of 46.95 year old (± 20.59. The pain score at presentation ranges from 4 to 9 with mean pain score of 6.2000(±1.6987), while pain score between 48 and 72 hours post admission ranges from 2 to 8 with mean pain score of 4.9333 (±2.1536 (mean difference = 1.2667, p <0.001). Few patients received adequate dose of analgesia within the first 48 hours of admission. One hundred and sixty eight (72.103%) of our patients have pain score greater than 3 between 48 and 72 hours post admission with mean pain score of 5.75(±1.595). Eleven patients (84.61%) with acute abdomen suffered oligoanalgesia while 26 patients with cancer (83.81%) suffered oligoanalgesia over the study period. Opiphobia (78.3%) followed by over sedation (72.9%) were major reasons for withholding analgesia. In none of the case notes was patient pain rated or scored throughout the period of study. Oligoanalgesia remains a major problem in our emergency department. Major factors associated with poor pain control include; lack of pain assessment and opiphobia resulting from poor knowledge about analgesia.
