Intravenous Cannulation in Children – Can the Pain Be Frozen?

Excerpt

Inserting a peripheral venous cannula is perhaps the most common invasive painful procedure done for children in a hospital. The pain and anxiety associated with any procedure involving needles in children is deep rooted and is a stressful experience for both the child and parents. There are reports of possible long term effects of painful procedures in children [1]. Any effort to alleviate the suffering of children in the healthcare setting is welcome and there has been numerous efforts, involving both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, over the years to address this. The non-pharmacologic interventions tried range from distraction techniques like oral pacifiers, kaleidoscopes, bubble blowing, music, videos, immersive virtual reality etc. [2]. In addition, pharmacologic interventions like EMLA cream, buffered lidocaine, vapocoolant spray etc. have also been employed commonly. The availability, adoption and usage of multiple interventions point towards the possibility that most of them may have only marginal benefit. …