HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: adc.2006.110338v1 93/2/F100    most recent Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in ADC Online Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by McCullough, S Articles by Macfarlane, P I Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by McCullough, S Articles by Macfarlane, P I

Lingual sucrose reduces the pain response to nasogastric tube insertion: a randomised clinical trial

¹ Department of Child Health, Rotherham General Hospital, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, UK
² Department of Pharmacy, Rotherham General Hospital, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, UK

Correspondence to:
Dr P I Macfarlane, Department of Child Health, Rotherham General Hospital, Moorgate Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S60 2UD, UK; peter.macfarlane{at}rothgen.nhs.uk

Objective: To determine whether lingual sucrose modifies the pain response to nasogastric tube insertion in preterm infants.

Design: Randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial.

Setting: Special care baby unit.

Patients: 20 stable preterm infants who required nasogastric tube insertion for feeding, randomised on 51 occasions.

Intervention: Lingual 24% sucrose or water placebo (0.5–2 ml varying with body weight) administered 2 min before nasogastric tube insertion.

Outcome measures: Heart rate, oxygen saturation (SaO₂), Neonatal Facial Coding Score and presence or absence of cry.

Results: Infants who received sucrose demonstrated a significantly lower Neonatal Facial Coding Score during nasogastric tube passage compared with the placebo group (median 1 (range 0–4) vs 3 (0–4), p = 0.004). There was a trend for sucrose-treated infants to have little change in heart rate during nasogastric tube passage compared with the placebo group (mean (SD) –0.73 (23) vs +11 (17), p = 0.055). Mean SaO₂ did not change significantly. Pain response measurements quickly returned to baseline after nasogastric tube insertion. Adverse effects, such as apnoea or oxygen desaturation, were few and occurred equally in each group.

Conclusions: Nasogastric tube insertion induces a pain response comparable with previously reported responses to heel lance in neonates. Single-dose lingual 24% sucrose is effective in reducing the behavioural and physiological pain response to nasogastric tube insertion in preterm infants and it appears to be safe.