Methods: The study included 64 patients who were hospitalized in the Cardiovascular Surgery Intensive Care Unit (ICU) between April 2007 and April 2008. A scale which was used in the hospital (Numeric Rating Scale) and two others which were not previously used Verbal Rating Scale and Visual Analog Scale were compared to assess their ability to measure pain intensity. Then, the patients were interviewed with a questionnaire to obtain the opinions of them. The first assessment was performed, after the patient was admitted to the ICU. The measurements were then repeated twice on the second and third days of ICU stay.

Results: A total of 81.3% of the patients reported that all scales were reliable for the assessment of the pain intensity. The majority (90.6%) reported Verbal Rating Scale, while very few (3.1%) reported Visual Analog Scale as an indicator of the assessment of the pain intensity.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that integration of the Verbal Rating Scale with the currently used rating scales, for the assessment of the pain intensity, pain attention to the preferences of the patients on rating scales, may be the convenient approach.