Biobehavioral pain responses in former extremely low birth weight infants at four months' corrected age.
OBJECTIVE
To compare biobehavioral responses to acute pain at 4 months' corrected age between former extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants and term-born controls.


METHODS
Measures of facial behavioral and cardiac autonomic reactivity in 21 former ELBW infants (mean birth weight = 763 g) were compared with term-born infants (n = 24) during baseline, lance, and recovery periods of a finger-lance blood collection. Further, painful procedures experienced during neonatal care were quantified in both groups.


RESULTS
Overall, behavioral and cardiac autonomic responses to the lance were similar between groups. However, the ELBW group seemed to have a less intense parasympathetic withdrawal in the lance period and a more sustained sympathetic response during recovery than the control group. Further, in the recovery period, two behavioral patterns (early recovery and a late recovery) were apparent among the ELBW group.


CONCLUSIONS
Biobehavioral pain responses were similar overall between both groups of infants. Subtle differences were observed in cardiac autonomic responses during the lance period and in behavioral recovery among ELBW infants. Whether these findings represent a long-term effect of early pain experience or a developmental lag in pain response remains unclear. The lack of an overall difference runs counter to previously reported findings of reduced behavioral response in former ELBW infants. biobehavioral pain response, premature infants, repetitive pain, heart rate variability.
Oberlander
T F
TF
Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. timothyo@interchange.ubc.ca
Grunau
R E
RE
Whitfield
M F
MF
Fitzgerald
C
C
Pitfield
S
S
Saul
J P
JP
D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000009:adverse effects; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D012119:Respiration