Sugar may not prevent newborn pain

Friday September 3rd, 2010

Nurses who carry out heel prick blood tests on newborns cannot avoid causing pain by giving sucrose, new research suggests.

Sugar has long been thought to provide pain relief to infants during painful medical procedures, and is part of the advice given in international clinical guidelines. But new research, carried out by Dr Rebeccah Slater of University College London, UK, and colleagues casts doubt in this belief.

The researchers say oral sucrose is often given on the basis of its effect on behavioural and physical pain scores. They observed 59 newborn infants who received either 0.5ml of sucrose solution or sterile water, two minutes before a heel prick.

Their brain activity afterwards "did not differ significantly", report the team. No difference was seen in leg reflex reactions, but observational pain scores based on the babies' facial expressions were lower in infants given sucrose.

Findings appear in the Lancet.

The authors say: "Our data suggest that oral sucrose does not significantly affect activity in neonatal brain or spinal cord nociceptive circuits, and therefore might not be an effective analgesic drug.

"The ability of sucrose to reduce clinical observational scores after noxious events in newborn infants should not be interpreted as pain relief."

However, the website NHS Choices points out that the study was small, it did not find any damage from sugar, and previous studies have found sugar to be safe and effective for reducing pain from minor hospital procedures.

But "the conclusions are likely to challenge the currently held belief that sugar is an effective treatment for the pain of minor procedures in infants," it concludes.

Slater, R. et al. Oral sucrose as an analgesic drug for procedural pain in newborn infants: a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, published online, September 1, 2010.

Tags: Child Health | Nursing & Midwifery | Pain Relief | UK News

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