Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Randomised controlled trial of paracetamol for heel prick pain in neonates

Abstract

AIM To evaluate the effectiveness of paracetamol in decreasing the pain from heel prick.

METHODS A prospective randomised double blind placebo controlled trial was conducted of 75 term neonates undergoing heel prick. Sixty to 90 minutes before the procedure neonates received paracetamol orally in a dose of 20 mg/kg (group 1) or an equal volume of placebo (group 2). Heel prick was performed in a standardised manner. Pain assessments were made using per cent facial action (brow bulge, eye squeeze, and nasolabial fold (range 0–300%) and per cent of time spent crying (range 0–100%).

RESULTS Thirty eight neonates were enrolled in group 1 and 37 neonates in group 2. There were no significant differences in the demographic characteristics between groups. Mean gestational age was 39 (SD 1.4) vs 39.4 (SD 1.2) weeks, p=0.86, mean birthweight 3.45 (SD 0.45) vs 3.44 (SD 0.42) kg; p=0.31 for groups 1 and 2, respectively. Facial action pain scores did not differ between groups (143.5 (SD 54.2)% vs 131.1 (SD 59.6)%; p=0.38). Cry scores also did not differ (29.4 (SD 19.9)%vs 26.8 (SD 20.2)%; p=0.60). No adverse effects were observed.

CONCLUSION Paracetamol is ineffective for decreasing the pain from heel prick in term neonates.

  • pain
  • heel prick
  • paracetamol

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes