Assessment of pain intensity and its persistence following common needle prick procedures in newborns

Abstract

Background and Aim: Newborns undergo a lot of needle prick procedure, but the exact intensity of pain and its persistence due to these procedures is not known. The present study was planned to estimate the pain intensity and its persistence following common procedures involving needle pricks in early neonates. Methods: We observed 200 early neonates from the nursery and immunization center of a tertiary care teaching hospital, with 50 participants each, for exposure to needle pricks by intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), intradermal (ID) and heel pricks. Intensity of pain was estimated using neonatal infant pain scale score measured at baseline and then continuously for 60 s or more till it returned to the baseline. Duration of pain was measured in seconds to the nearest 1 s. Results: Pain following IV prick persisted for 100.7 ± 47.2 s, was found to be significantly (P < 0.001) high when compared with 62.3 ± 22.4 s, 53.2 ± 23.6 s and 52.3 ± 24.1 s for IM, ID and heel pricks, respectively. Conclusion: From the present study, it is suggested, that among the four different needle pricks in newborns, IV prick is the most painful in intensity and pain persists for a longer period in IV followed by IM, ID and heel prick.