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From the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy (Taddio, Smith), the Faculty of Medicine (Shah, Koren), the Faculty of Nursing (Stevens), the Departments of Anesthesia (Katz) and Population Health Sciences (Stephens, Beyene), and the Institute of Medical Sciences (Hancock), University of Toronto; Child Health Evaluative Sciences (Taddio, Hancock, Smith, Stephens, Atenafu, Beyene, Koren, Stevens), The Hospital for Sick Children; The Department of Paediatrics (Shah), Mount Sinai Hospital; and the Department of Psychology (Katz), York University, Toronto, Ont.
Correspondence to: Dr. Anna Taddio, Associate Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, 144 College St., Toronto ON M5S 3M2; fax 416 978-1833; anna.taddio{at}utoronto.ca
Background: Sucrose is widely used to manage procedural pain in term newborns despite a lack of evidence of its effectiveness for different procedures and infant populations. Our objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of sucrose in newborns undergoing various medical procedures within 2 days of birth.
Methods: We performed a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. We included newborns (
36 weeks gestation) of diabetic mothers and nondiabetic mothers. Each newborn received 2 mL of a 24%-sucrose or placebo solution before all procedures. We used the Premature Infant Pain Profile to assess pain during intramuscular injection of vitamin K, venipuncture for the newborn screening test and the first 3 heel lances for glucose monitoring (newborns of diabetic mothers only). Scores ranged from from 0 (no pain) to 18 (maximum pain).
Results: We included 240 newborns (120 from diabetic mothers, 120 from nondiabetic mothers). The overall mean pain score was lower among newborns who received sucrose than among those who received a placebo (mean difference –1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] –2.0 to –0.6). We found that pain scores during intramuscular injection did not differ significantly between the sucrose and placebo groups for newborns of diabetic or nondiabetic mothers (newborns of nondiabetic mothers: mean difference –1.1, 95% CI –2.4 to 0.2; newborns of diabetic mothers: mean difference –1.0, 95% CI –2.4 to 0.4). During venipuncture, newborns who received sucrose had lower pain scores compared with those who received a placebo (newborns of nondiabetic mothers: mean difference –3.2, 95% CI –4.6 to –1.8; newborns of diabetic mothers: mean difference –2.4, 95% CI –3.8 to –1.0). Among newborns of diabetic mothers, there was no difference in pain during the first 3 heel lances or mean glucose levels between the sucrose and placebo groups (p = 0.94 and p = 0.29 respectively).
Interpretation: We found a modest reduction of pain in newborns of both diabetic and nondiabetic mothers when sucrose was used for all medical procedures performed in the first 2 days after birth. However, when each procedure was analyzed separately, we found that the effectiveness of sucrose was limited to venipuncture for the newborn screening test. (http://Clinicaltrials.gov trial register no. NCT00213213.)
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  A. Taddio, V. Shah, and J. Katz Reduced Infant Response to a Routine Care Procedure After Sucrose Analgesia Pediatrics, March 1, 2009; 123(3): e425 - e429. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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 K.J.S. Anand MBBS DPhil Analgesia for skin-breaking procedures in newborns and children: What works best? Can. Med. Assoc. J., July 1, 2008; 179(1): 11 - 12. [Full Text] [PDF]
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