The effect of sucrose on the control of pain secondary to retinopathy of prematurity screening: randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Introduction: Pain control during interventions may be able to prevent long term impact of pain on infants' neurodevelopmental outcome. We would like to examine the efficiency of sucrose intake on pain control during retinopathy of prematurity examination. Methods: Sixty-four infants were included in the study between December 2010 and September 2011. They were randomised into three groups as repeated doses of 0.2 ml distilled water, repeated doses of 0.2 ml sucrose, and single dose of 0.6 ml sucrose group. Premature infant pain profile, peak heart rate, oxygen saturation (SpO2), and characteristics of crying were evaluated during eye examination. Results: The only significant difference of median pain scores was on the left eye at 30 seconds [7.5 (11), 8 (12), 9 (9) in repeated low doses and single high dose of sucrose, and placebo group, respectively] (p=0.015). Heart rate and SpO2 (p=0.67 and p=0.21) were not different between groups. Crying time was shorter (p=0.028) and severity of crying was lower (p=0.009) in groups that received sucrose compared with placebo. Discussion: Sucrose may lead to sucking, swallowing and decrease crying by stimulating taste sensation, thus may result in misinterpretation of the subjective parameters of pain score, considering that it has no influence on objective criteria of pain.