Parental assessment and management of children's postoperative pain: a randomized clinical trial

As day case surgery increases, one needs to improve the management of pain in children at home. This study wished to determine whether the use of a self-report pain scale would result in children receiving more analgesia. Eighty-eight children aged four to 12 years undergoing tonsillectomy, whose pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child health care 2007-09, Vol.11 (3), p.186-194
Main Authors: Unsworth, Vanessa, Franck, Linda S., Choonara, Imti
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambulatory Surgical Procedures - adverse effects
Ambulatory Surgical Procedures - psychology
Analgesia - methods
Analgesia - psychology
Analgesics - therapeutic use
Attitude to Health
Child
Child, Preschool
Documentation
England
Female
Humans
Male
Nursing
Nursing Education Research
Nursing Evaluation Research
Pain Measurement - methods
Pain Measurement - psychology
Pain, Postoperative - diagnosis
Pain, Postoperative - etiology
Pain, Postoperative - prevention & control
Pain, Postoperative - psychology
Parents - education
Parents - psychology
Patient Education as Topic - organization & administration
Postoperative Care - methods
Postoperative Care - nursing
Psychology, Child
Self Care - methods
Self Care - psychology
Severity of Illness Index
Statistics, Nonparametric
Tonsillectomy - adverse effects
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Summary:As day case surgery increases, one needs to improve the management of pain in children at home. This study wished to determine whether the use of a self-report pain scale would result in children receiving more analgesia. Eighty-eight children aged four to 12 years undergoing tonsillectomy, whose parents agreed they could participate, were randomly assigned into two groups. Group A received the routine postoperative advice and a three-day prescription of paracetamol, ibuprofen and codeine. In addition, group B used the Wong—Baker Faces Pain Scale. Seventy-two children completed the study. There was no difference in the total number of analgesics administered to children in the two groups (p = 0.26, Mann— Whitney U-test). It appears that a self-report pain scale does not improve the postoperative management of pain in children at home.
ISSN:1367-4935
1741-2889
DOI:10.1177/1367493507079558