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4 - Pain and Analgesia in the Infant

from SECTION ONE - OVERVIEW AND PRINCIPLES IN EMERGENCY ANALGESIA AND PROCEDURAL SEDATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2009

John H. Burton  and
James Miner
By
Michelle P. Tomassi
John H. Burton
Affiliation:
Albany Medical College, New York
James Miner
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Michelle P. Tomassi
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Albany Medical Center, 43 New Scotland Avenue, A-139 Albany, NY 12208–3478, Email: tomassm@mail.amc.edu
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Summary

SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM

Pain in infants poses a major challenge for health professionals. Although infants are uniquely vulnerable to pain and its consequences, pain is less adequately controlled in this patient population than in any other. Many reasons account for the undertreatment of pain in infants with the most common problem being a paucity of knowledge regarding pain and analgesia for the infant population.

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT

Definition of Pain in Infants

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has defined pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage” (from reference). It has been suggested that this definition is inappropriate for infants.

The interpretation of pain is subjective and infants lack the ability of self-report in the traditional sense. This inability to verbalize pain contributes to the failure of health-care professionals to recognize and treat pain aggressively in infants.

It has also been hypothesized that pain perception occurs in a less-organized fashion in the infant than the child or adult. Pain is a combination of sensory (discriminative) and emotional (affective) components. The sensory component of pain is defined as nociception. Nociception incorporates the physiologic and behavioral responses of infants to a painful stimulus but not the cognitive responses that are part of pain perception. Consequently, health-care professionals are required to rely on physiologic and behavioral responses when assessing pain in an infant.

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Emergency Sedation and Pain Management , pp. 18 - 24
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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References

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  • Pain and Analgesia in the Infant
    • By Michelle P. Tomassi, Department of Emergency Medicine, Albany Medical Center, 43 New Scotland Avenue, A-139 Albany, NY 12208–3478, Email: tomassm@mail.amc.edu
  • John H. Burton, Albany Medical College, New York, James Miner, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Emergency Sedation and Pain Management
  • Online publication: 03 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511547225.004
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  • Pain and Analgesia in the Infant
    • By Michelle P. Tomassi, Department of Emergency Medicine, Albany Medical Center, 43 New Scotland Avenue, A-139 Albany, NY 12208–3478, Email: tomassm@mail.amc.edu
  • John H. Burton, Albany Medical College, New York, James Miner, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Emergency Sedation and Pain Management
  • Online publication: 03 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511547225.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Pain and Analgesia in the Infant
    • By Michelle P. Tomassi, Department of Emergency Medicine, Albany Medical Center, 43 New Scotland Avenue, A-139 Albany, NY 12208–3478, Email: tomassm@mail.amc.edu
  • John H. Burton, Albany Medical College, New York, James Miner, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Emergency Sedation and Pain Management
  • Online publication: 03 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511547225.004
Available formats
×