Children Learn to Use Pain Control Drugs
July 15, 2006 | General Health
Facing surgery and the pain of recovery is scary for anyone, especially for a child. But now, more and more doctors are literally putting pain control in the hands of their littlest patients.
One day after surgery, 11-year-old Sukanya Mahan looks forward to a huge change in her life — walking. It’s something she’s been working toward since her parents adopted her from India four years ago.
A badly healed fracture and mild cerebral palsy had limited her to simply pushing along the floor on her hands. Now, doctors at Seattle Children’s Hospital have loosened her tendons and repositioned bones. But this necessary major surgery can bring painful recovery.
“She’s a very tough girl,” said her father Monty Mahan. “She handles pain very well.”
Thanks to an approach that’s gaining in popularity, Sukanya can control her pain better, because she’s medicating herself.
“I push the button and it makes me feel better,” she said.
A line delivers a constant drip of a numbing medication, a milder version of the epidural given to women in labor. She’s on a steady dose of a pain reducer but she can also push a button for extra medicine whenever pain breaks through.
“The benefit of this is the immediacy of the treatment,” said Dr. Kathleen Larkin at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital. “If she’s in pain she hits the button, and the pain medicine is going in instantly.”
Children as young as six are able to understand and use the self-delivery button. Though it’s not risk-free, studies show the method is safe. Rather than overdosing, kids may use only half the normal amount of the drugs.
It also gives them better control of drug side effects like nausea and itching. And it helps another way.
“If the child has the button in their hand it gives them a sense of power and control and therefore less anxiety,” Dr. Larkin said.
Doctors are starting to use the kid-controlled pain buttons for several kinds of surgery.
There’s another advantage when kids use the pain control buttons: they recover faster because they’re more willing to get up and get walking after surgery.