The use of oral sucrose to relieve minor procedural pain in neonates

Abstract EN

Objective : to evaluate the effectiveness of oral sucrose as analgesic for minor painful procedures in neonates. Methods : A case control study was conducted in the neonatal intensive care unit at King Hussein Medical Center during the period between June 1 and December 30, 2009.

A total of 100 preterm and term neonates with postnatal ages ranging from one to 20 days, who underwent heel pricks for collection of blood for bilirubin estimation were randomly assigned into two groups.

The treatment group received 24% sucrose solution two minutes before heel prick and the control group did not receive sucrose solution.

The pain was assessed using the Premature Infant Pain Profile which is a multidimensional acute pain rating scale with scores ranging from 0 (no pain) to 21 (maximum pain).

The exclusion criteria included the following : age less than 30 weeks gestational age, newborns on ventilators, newborns with major congenital or neurologic anomalies or clinical diagnosis of birth asphyxia or seizures, those on analgesics or sedatives and sick newborns with unstable vital signs.

The student's t test was used to compare the relevant data.

P value less than 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. Results: A total of 100 newborns, which were born with 30 weeks and above gestational age, were included in the study and divided into treatment and control groups in equal numbers.

The mean Premature Infant Pain Profile scores were significantly lower in the treatment group, than in the control. Conclusion : our study suggests that sucrose is an effective non-pharmacological analgesic for minor painful procedures in neonates.