Paediatric prehospital analgesia in Auckland

Paediatric prehospital analgesia in Auckland

Watkins N

Emergency Medicine Australasia

2006

PedPal Lit

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the present study were: To determine whether the age of a child influences the likelihood of their receiving prehospital analgesia from the Auckland ambulance service. To investigate the effect of age on ambulance officers' decision-making and use of analgesia. METHODS: A prospective study of children arriving by ambulance at Starship Children's Emergency Department Auckland, with a diagnosis of limb fracture or burn, was undertaken over 2 months in 2002. A concurrent questionnaire survey investigated ambulance officers' use of analgesia in children. RESULTS: No child aged less than 5 years (n = 10) compared with 51% between 5 and 15 years of age (n = 35) received prehospital analgesia (P = 0.003). On arrival in hospital 70% aged less than 5 years compared with 54% older than 5 years required i.v. opiate analgesia. Ambulance officers did not perceive that a child's age would significantly alter their decision to use analgesia. CONCLUSIONS: In children, younger age is a significant risk factor for receiving inadequate prehospital analgesia. Ambulance officers' concern about the pain of injection is the major identified factor for the relative underuse of morphine observed in younger children.

2006

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Journal Article

Backlog