Pediatr Emerg Med J.  2017 Dec;4(2):75-78. 10.22470/pemj.2017.00122.

Factors associated with administration of analgesics for children with forearm fracture

• Seo KH
• Kim DH
• Lee WJ
• Woo SH
• Seol SH
• Lee JY
• Choi SP

• KMID: 2402331
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.22470/pemj.2017.00122

Abstract

PURPOSE
Analgesia is essential for the treatment of children's fracture. We aimed to investigate the factors associated with administration of analgesics in children with forearm fracture.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed medical records of children (< 20 years) with forearm fracture who visited 2 tertiary hospital emergency departments from 2014 to 2015. We analyzed factors, such as gender, age, whether the mother accompanied the visit, visiting time and route, mechanism of injury, duration of symptoms, complicated fracture, manual reduction, surgery, and type and route of analgesics. We also performed logistic regression analysis to identify the factors associated with administration of analgesics.
RESULTS
Of 179 children with forearm fracture, 48 (26.8%) were administered analgesics. These children showed older age, shorter duration of symptoms, and more frequent visit with their mothers, visit during the day, use of emergency medical services, and surgery. After logistic regression analysis, we found use of emergency medical service (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 8.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.16-24.08; P < 0.001), visit with the mother (OR, 6.23; 95% CI, 1.68-23.09; P = 0.006), age (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.05-1.32; P = 0.004), and duration of symptoms (OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.986-0.999; P = 0.035) as the factors associated with administration of analgesics.
CONCLUSION
The factors associated with administration of analgesics might be communicating skill-related factors, such as older age and shorter duration of symptoms. Children with poor communicating skill may need more aggressive analgesia in the emergency department.

Keyword

Child; Emergencies; Fractures, Bone; Pain Management; Wounds and Injuries

MeSH Terms

Analgesia
Analgesics*
Child*
Emergencies
Emergency Medical Services
Emergency Service, Hospital
Forearm*
Fractures, Bone
Humans
Logistic Models
Medical Records
Mothers
Odds Ratio
Pain Management
Retrospective Studies
Tertiary Care Centers
Wounds and Injuries
Analgesics