Korean J Child Health Nurs.  2001 Jan;7(1):35-50.

Pain Relieving Effect of Intraoral Sucrose Replacement in Neonates

• Yoon HB

Abstract

The ability of neonates to perceive and react to pain, has been acknowledged recently. Recent researches have been shown that even short term pain can have lasting negative effects. We know that most of the anatomical pathway and neurotransmitter function necessary for pain perception are fully or nearly fully developed in the neonatal period. Many people are still reluctant to believe that pain felt by neonates may be as severe as that felt by older children or adults yet. The objective of the study is to assess and compare the analgesic effects of orally administered sucrose and pacifiers. And to determine the synergistic analgesic effects of sucrose and pacifiers. The tools for this study is Lawrence's NIPS (neonatal infant pain scale) with behavioural pain responses and index for pain physiological reponses as heart rate, respiratory rate and degree of SaO2. The participants are 96 healthy infants of neonatal age 1-7days and randomised to receive heel prick before 2minutes to blood sampling and physiological test in Nursery of K Medical University Hospital on May-July, 2000. The experimental group assigned to one of three treatment groups : no treatment; a pacifier; placebo(2ml 25% sucrose). Collected data were analyzed with the SAS program using X2-test, ANOVA and Duncan's multiple range test as post hoc. The results were as follows. 1) Pain behaviour responses: The pain score of placebo group(2ml 25% sucrose) is lower than no treatment group and pacifier group significantly(P=.000). Placebo group is different from no treatment and pacifier group with Duncan's multiple range test. 2) Pain physiologic responses (1) heart rate: The heart rate of placebo group(2ml 25% sucrose) is different from that of no treatment group and pacifier group significantly(P=.000). The heart rate change of placebo group is less than the other groups. (2) respiratory rate: The respiratory rate of placebo group(2ml 25% sucrose) is different from that of no treatment group and pacifier group insignificantly (P=.2340). But, the respiratory rate of placebo group is lower than the other groups. (3) SaO2: The SaO2 score of placebo group(2ml 25% sucrose) is different from that of no treatment group and pacifier group insignificantly (P=.3265). But, the change of SaO2 score of placebo group is less than the other groups. In conclusion, the sucrose placebo showed pain relief effect in behavior responses and less physiological responses. Accordingly, the sucrose placebo should be applied nursing intervention for simple pain management as heel prick.

MeSH Terms

Adult
Child
Heart Rate
Heel
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn*
Neurotransmitter Agents
Nurseries
Nursing
Pacifiers
Pain Management
Pain Perception
Respiratory Rate
Sucrose*
Child Health
Neurotransmitter Agents
Sucrose