Waiting 2 minutes after sucrose administration-unnecessary?
BACKGROUND
Worldwide, oral sucrose is standard of care in many neonatal intensive care units to relieve procedural pain in neonates. This study aims to determine if time interval between sucrose administration and heelstick correlates with pain scores.


METHODS
Neonates were prospectively studied with variable time intervals and assessed with the Premature Infant Pain Profile-Revised (PIPP-R).


RESULTS
150 neonates were included with a median gestational age of 30+6(IQR 27+6-33+2) weeks and a median time interval of 72 (IQR 39-115) seconds between sucrose administration and heelstick. In multiple regression analysis, this time interval was not significantly related to the PIPP-R (B=0.004, 95% CI -0.005 to 0.013, p=0.37). Providing non-nutritive sucking combined with sucrose was significantly related to lower PIPP-R scores (B=-3.50, 95% CI -4.7 to -2.3, p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study suggests that there is no need to wait 2 min after sucrose administration before a painful procedure. Sucrose-induced non-nutritive sucking shows a fast pain-relieving effect in neonates.
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Naomi
N
Meesters
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Sinno
S
Simons
Department of Biostatistics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Joost
J
van Rosmalen
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Irwin
I
Reiss
Division of Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology, Children's National Health System, Washington, USA.|Intensive Care and Department of Pediatric Surgery, Erasmus MC -Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Division of Paediatric Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, University Children's Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
John
J
van den Anker
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Intensive Care and Department of Pediatric Surgery, Erasmus MC -Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Monique
M
van Dijk
D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods*; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013395:Sucrose / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D013997:Time Factors
D013395:Sucrose
Analgesia; Neonatology; Pain; Sucrose; premature