Pediatria pre prax 1/2009

Childhood pain in the pediatric primary practice

Children not only have pain from life-threatening diseases such as cancer, but also from injuries, surgery, burns, infections, and investigations used by doctors and nurses to investigate and treat disease (procedural pain). It is important to remember that children are not just small adults. Pain management should start when a child is first diagnosed, treated and should continue throughout the illness. Examples of pain relievers for children include NSAIDs, paracetamol, and opioids. Use the stepwise WHO „analgesic ladder“ to choose pain-relieving drugs, using the severity of a child‘s pain to determine the type and dose of analgesic. Childhood pain is often complex (particularly chronic and malignant pain) and ideally a multidisciplinary approach should be used. The most difficult task involved with treating pain in children is obtaining an objective measurement of pain. Most of the methods available do not apply to all age groups (age related). Methods for measuring pain in children can be divided into three categories: self-reported measures of pain, behavioral measures of pain and physiologic measures of pain. Pain in children that is not treated may get in the way of physical and emotional healing.

Keywords: children, pain, pain relief, measurement of pain.