Treating pediatric post‐tonsillectomy pain and nausea with complementary and alternative medicine

Objectives Although tonsillectomy is a common and largely safe procedure, pain management in children remains a controversial topic. In addition to the challenge of choosing appropriate analgesia, there is often low parent and child adherence. This article presents a review, and evaluates the potent...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Laryngoscope 2018-11, Vol.128 (11), p.2625-2634
Main Authors: Keefe, Katherine R., Byrne, Kevin J., Levi, Jessica R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acupuncture
Acupuncture Therapy - methods
Apitherapy - methods
Child
complementary and alternative medicine
Complementary Therapies - methods
Female
Honey
Humans
Hyaluronic acid
Male
nausea
Pain
Pain, Postoperative - therapy
Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting - therapy
Tonsillectomy
Tonsillectomy - adverse effects
Treatment Adherence and Compliance
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:Objectives Although tonsillectomy is a common and largely safe procedure, pain management in children remains a controversial topic. In addition to the challenge of choosing appropriate analgesia, there is often low parent and child adherence. This article presents a review, and evaluates the potential role, of a range of complementary and alternative therapies that may be sought out by parents. Methods A literature review of complementary and alternative interventions performed using PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE, supplemented by searches from Google and hand searches of cross‐references of selected articles, yielded 32 studies for qualitative analysis. Results The studies included for analysis investigated a wide variety of alternative treatment modalities: acupuncture and related therapies, aromatherapy, homeopathy, honey, intravenous fluid, speech therapy, hyaluronic acid, behavioral therapies, ice/cold, hydrogen peroxide rinse, and chewing gum. Conclusion At this time, stronger conclusions cannot be made about the therapies investigated because there are many methodology limitations of the studies analyzed. However, our results suggest merit for these treatments as adjuvant therapies that can enhance analgesia and decrease requirements of controversial medications. Honey and acupuncture have the greatest amount of evidence for postoperative pain and nausea; however, all interventions examined were cost‐effective and safe. We recommend against hydrogen peroxide rinses and chewing gum. Laryngoscope, 2625–2634, 2018
ISSN:0023-852X
1531-4995
DOI:10.1002/lary.27231