Efficacy of 50% Oral Dextrose As Pain Relief in Newborns Before Bladder Catheterization

During first days of the life of New-borns, they go through a lot of painful procedures such as blood tests and immunizations that lead to painful experiences and distress. For long period of time it was believed that young children do not feel the painful stimuli. Recent studies have proven that they have all the anatomical, physiological and neurochemical system to feel for the pain (1). In fact, they have low threshold for the pain stimuli due to immature suppressive mechanism (2). There are several consequences that pain can cause to children such as: respiratory distress, changes in the metabolic and intracranial system, induce significant behavioural reactions and increase sensitivity to pain.

For these reasons, as well as for ethical reasons, it is advisable to find an acceptable method to reduce pain and distress during painful procedures. Pharmacologic treatment is not recommended for New-borns with acute, recurring, and short-term painful procedures. Studies has reported an alternative way which can be used for pain relive such as using oral sweeteners (3). World-widely, national and international guidelines recommended the use of oral sweeteners such as Sucrose and glucose before painful procedures (4). Researchers found that administration of oral dextrose can raise the pain threshold by activating endogenous opioids (5). The maximum effect can be observed at 2 minutes after administration (6). It is not clear what is the exact effective dose that can be used during painful procedure (7). Several studies used 2ml of dextrose, but other studies have reported an effect with 0.05 mL (8).

Study done by thyr et al (9) shows sweet solution can be used as a simple and safe method to reduce the distress following immunization in infants up to 12 months. A systematic review by Harrison et al (10) reported that Infants aged 1-12 months received oral sucrose or glucose before immunization had moderately reduced incidence and duration of crying.

Inclusion criteria

• Age from 1 day to 90 days
• Did not received analgesia for last 6 hours

Exclusion criteria

• Preterm newborns presenting in ED younger than 38 weeks (corrected age)
• Unstable child
• Suspicion of enterocolitis
• Esophageal- tracheal fistula not operated
• Known case of fructose intolerance
• Oral congenital malformation (cleft palate)