The efficacy of mechanical vibration analgesia for relief of heel stick pain in neonates: a novel approach.
BACKGROUND
Hospitalized infants are often exposed to many painful procedures as a result of their illness or disease process. Untreated or poorly treated pain can have deleterious effects on normal nociceptive pain development as well as future development of pain pathways. Mechanical vibration has been found to be efficacious in adult and pediatric populations for the relief of mild-to-moderate acute and chronic pain. However, little is known about the efficacy of this intervention in the neonatal population.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that mechanical vibration would be efficacious in the relief of pain associated with heel sticks in neonates. Heel sticks are one of the most common painful procedures during neonatal hospitalization.


METHODS
A random-sequencing crossover design was used with infants acting as their own controls.


METHODS
Newborn infants of 35 weeks' gestation or greater (N = 20) met the inclusion criteria for the study.


METHODS
Pain during heel stick was measured with the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale. The Neonatal Infant Pain Scale is a nonintrusive tool with extensive evidence of its reliability and validity in the neonatal population, when used by trained observers.


RESULTS
Mechanical vibration produced an analgesic effect for infants who had previously experienced painful heel sticks that approached statistical significance.


CONCLUSIONS
The apparent limitations of mechanical vibration as analgesia may be due to the concurrent use of sucrose and pacifier, the effects of order (ie, habituation), or type II error. Because vibration produced the predicted positive effect in some circumstances, further investigation in larger samples within a randomized clinical trial is warranted.
Baba
Lisa R
LR
Nursing Faculty, Department of Nursing, Mesa Community College, Mesa, Arizona 85202, USA. lisa.baba@mcmail.maricopa.edu
McGrath
Jacqueline M
JM
Liu
Jiexin
J
D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods*; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000009:adverse effects*; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D005260:Female; D006365:Heel / Q000098:blood supply; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008297:Male; D017283:Neonatal Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014732:Vibration / Q000627:therapeutic use*