RT Book, Section
A1 Gomella, Tricia Lacy
A1 Eyal, Fabien G.
A1 Bany-Mohammed, Fayez
SR Print(0)
ID 1168355993
T1 Pain in the Neonate
T2 Gomella's Neonatology: Management, Procedures, On-Call Problems, Diseases, and Drugs, 8e
YR 2020
FD 2020
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259644818
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1168355993
RD 2024/04/25
AB Before  the  1980s,  it  was  a  common  belief  that  preterm  infants  lacked  the  neurodevelopmental  capacity  to  feel  pain.  This  resulted  in  severe  undertreatment  of  pain  in  the  neonate  during  hospitalization.  It  is  now  known  that  infants  have  the  required  neuroanatomical  connections  to  feel  pain,  and  actually  experience  a  higher  degree  of  sensitivity  to  pain  as  compared  to  children  and  adults.  Neonates  are  subject  to  many  painful  procedures,  especially  the  most  immature  infant.  Although  neonatology  has  made  strides  in  the  past  20  years  to  understand  pain,  it  remains  a  challenge  to  effectively  assess  and  treat  the  various  types  of  pain  experienced  in  the  neonatal  intensive  care  unit  (NICU).  A  recent  study  revealed  that  there  is  a  worldwide  trend  of  undertreatment  of  neonatal  pain  and  that  more  attention  should  be  given  to  pain  prevention,  assessment,  and  treatment.  Countries  with  nationally  accepted  guidelines  for  pain  management  (such  as  France,  Sweden,  and  the  Netherlands)  do  a  better  job  in  treating  neonatal  pain  than  those  countries  without  guidelines.  The  American  Academy  of  Pediatrics  (AAP)  recently  updated  the  recommendations  for  managing  procedural  pain  in  neonates.  These  recommendations  include  the  following: