How is incident pain different from breakthrough pain?
Incident pain is a nociceptive response to an activity (wound care, toileting). Breakthrough pain is defined as pain that occurs when the threshold of pain relief afforded by scheduled, around-the-clock analgesics is breached. Typically, patients who are on long-acting analgesics who experience breakthrough pain benefit from up-titration of the analgesic and/or immediate administration of a short-acting analgesic to mitigate the acute pain.