The Committee forward Pediatric Eme...

The Committee forward Pediatric Emergency Medicine and the Section in succession Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released a clinical report upon emergency pain and anxiety treatment in children. "Relief of Pain and Anxiety in Pediatric Patients in extremity Medical Systems" appears in the November 2004 issue of Pediatrics and is available online at http://www.pediatrics.org.

Relief of pain and stres for children receiving crisis medical treatment is a vital, and readily available, constituent of care. Advances in the recognition and treatment of pain in children across the past 20 years have l to improved pain management for acutely ill and injured children. However, as it is care still lags behind adult pain management.

rigorous pain and stress can have long-lasting implications for children. For example, a newborn infant who undergoe a act with inadequate pain relief may have permanent changes in his or her replication to, and perceptions of, pain. Post-traumatic stres disorder also can befall after painful procedures and medical experiences. However, there is no evidence that pain management masks symptoms, mists mental status, or in any way precludes physicians from making adequate assessments and diagnoses, according to the report.

Immediate pain assessment for children, including newborns, should arise on emergency department (ED) admission, the report states, and each opportunity should be taken to use available rules of pain control during treatment, smooth for minor procedures. The recommendations in the report are summarized in the accompanying box

More research and innovation forward child pain and stress reduction techniques are destitutioned according to the report. As medications and technology open EDs must continue to make secure that safe protocols and practices are in place for child pain management.

Summary of Recommendations

* Training and education in pediatric pain assessment and management should be provided to all participants in necessity medical systems for children.

* Simple way s for creating favorable environmental conditions for infants and children in the unforeseen occasion medical services (EMS) setting should be advocated by means of caregivers.

* Incorporation of child life specialists and others trained in nonpharmacologic stres reduction should be encouraged.

* Family air should be offered as an option during painful procedures

* Pain assessment for children should begin at admission to EM and continue until discharge from the exigency department (ED). On discharge, patients should receive detailed instruction regarding analgesic administration.

* Painless administration of analgesics and anesthetics should be practiced when possible.

* Neonatal and young infants should receive appropriate pain relief.

* Administration of pain medication has not been shown to hinder the evaluation of a possible surgical patient in the ed and pain medication should not be withheld in succession this account.

* Sedation should be provided for patients undergoing painful or stressful processs in the ED. A structur protocol for pediatric sedation, based upon recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Society of Anesthesiologists, American literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learning of Emergency Physicians, and pinch Medical Services for Children, should be followed for all children who receive sedative medications in the EM setting.

COPYRIGHT 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians

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