Use of Sucrose Analgesia in Low Birth Newborns with Congenital Heart Disease Undergoing Painful Medical Procedures

Background: Our objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of sucrose in newborns undergoing medical procedures within 7 days of birth. Methods: We performed a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. We included 27 newborns (29,4±2,0 weeks gestation). Each newborn received 2 ml of a 24%-sucrose or placebo solution before all procedures. We used the Premature Infant Pain Profile to assess pain during intramuscular injection, venipuncture for the newborn screening test and the first 3 heel lances for glucose monitoring. Scores ranged from from 0 (no pain) to 18 (maximum pain). Results: We included 21 newborns. The overall mean pain score was lower among newborns who received sucrose than among those who received a placebo (mean difference [MD] -1.42, 94% confidence interval [CI] -1.82 to -0.61). We found that pain scores during intramuscular injection did not differ significantly between the sucrose and placebo groups for newborns( 1 group: MD -1.34, 96% CI -2.30 to 0.2; 2 group: MD -1.0, 90% CI -2.38 to 0.4). During venipuncture, newborns who received sucrose had lower pain scores compared with those who received a placebo ( 1 group: MD - 3.62, 94% CI -4.2 to -1.91; 2 group: MD -2.04, 93% CI -3.3 to -1.1). Conclusion: We found a modest reduction of pain in newborns when sucrose was used for all medical procedures performed in the first 7 days after birth. However, when each procedure was analyzed separately, we found that the effectiveness of sucrose was limited to venipuncture for the newborn screening test.