Managing painful paediatric procedures

Abstract

Prevention of procedural pain in children reduces the risk of subsequent morbidity including pain sensitisation. The primary emphasis for reducing pain should be on appropriate distraction and rapport-building strategies, however the doctor's technique can also assist. Topical anaesthetic preparations supplement the painless suturing of wounds. They can also reduce the pain of injections, including venepuncture. Studies of mass vaccination show that injections into the buttock cause less irritability than injections into the thigh. If the thigh is used then an injection at right angles is preferred to angulation.