Synonyms
Introduction
Sucrose for pain relief
To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always.
(Quote attributed to three different sources – Hippocrates, 460 BC–c. 370 BC; Ambroise Paré, 1510–1590 and Edward Livingston Trudeau, 1848–1915)
In 1991, Blass and Hoffmeyer published the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating analgesic effects of sucrose in newborn infants during painful procedures (Blass and Hoffmeyer 1991). This RCT set the stage for the conduct of almost 160 trials and numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses evaluating analgesic effects of sweet solutions for infants during painful procedures over the following two decades. With few exceptions, findings of these large numbers of studies consistently showed that sucrose and glucose reduced behavioral responses and composite pain scores during commonly performed painful procedures in diverse populations of preterm infants, term newborn infants, as well as infants up to 12 months of age.
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References
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Harrison, D. (2013). Sweet Solutions for Pain Management. In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_4974
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_4974
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