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Short research report
Waiting 2 minutes after sucrose administration—unnecessary?
  1. Naomi Meesters1,
  2. Sinno Simons1,
  3. Joost van Rosmalen2,
  4. Irwin Reiss1,
  5. John van den Anker3,4,5,
  6. Monique van Dijk1,4
  1. 1Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC–Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  2. 2Department of Biostatistics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  3. 3Division of Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology, Children's National Health System, Washington, USA
  4. 4Intensive Care and Department of Pediatric Surgery, Erasmus MC –Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  5. 5Division of Paediatric Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, University Children's Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  1. Correspondence to Naomi Meesters, Division of Neonatology Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC–Sophia Children's Hospital, Wytemaweg 80, Rotterdam 3015 CN, The Netherlands; n.meesters{at}erasmusmc.nl

Abstract

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.

  • Pain
  • Neonatology
  • premature
  • Analgesia
  • Sucrose

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2016-310841

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors NM conceptualized and designed the study and data collection instruments, carried out data collection and initial analyses, drafted the initial manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted. SS conceptualized and designed the study, critically reviewed and revised the manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted. JvR supervised initial analyses, critically reviewed and revised the manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted. IR critically reviewed and revised the manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted. JvdA critically reviewed and revised the manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted. MvD conceptualized and designed the study, supervised data collection and initial analyses, critically reviewed and revised the manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval METC Erasmus MC.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement All data are available upon request.