Inadequate pain management and associated morbidity in children at home after tonsillectomy

Pre-surgical child behavior ratings and pain management after two different techniques of tonsil surgery

“…Several other studies have shown that even when parents recognize that their child is in pain, inadequate doses of pain-relievers are often given at home [2,4,8,32]. However, in the present study, the parents were well informed about the importance of adequate pain relief at regular intervals and about the negative effects if they did not give enough (poor oral fluid intake, sleep disturbance, behavioral changes and emesis) and seemed not to have under-medicated.…”

“…Tonsillectomy causes considerable pain and morbidity, which often lasts more than 7 days [1][2][3]. The post-operative pain is poorly managed [4,5], and under-treatment of pain leads to increased morbidity as well as post-operative behavioral changes [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Several investigators have tried to explain insufficient post-operative pain medication with difficulties for the nurses to assess children's pain and resulting in prescription of analgesics in doses that are too low [10][11][12].…”

Oral morphine versus ibuprofen administered at home for postoperative orthopedic pain in children: a randomized controlled trial

“…11 In children, suboptimal analgesia can result in sleep disturbance, behavioural changes and vomiting. 12 Untreated pain leads to slower wound healing, 13 needle phobia, 14 hyperesthesia 15 and fear of medical procedures. 16 Undertreatment is an important cause of inadequate postoperative analgesia.…”

A Review of Intravenous Lidocaine Infusion Therapy for Paediatric Acute and Chronic Pain Management

“…Changes include increased morbidity such as nausea, emesis, poor oral fluid intake, sleep disturbance and behavioural changes. Ongoing discomfort and distress have a negative impact on child and family satisfaction and may be associated with poor recovery, anxiety, fear and reduced quality of life measures [64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71].…”