[Pain therapy for premature babies and neonates]

Abstract

Pain is a central topic on neonatal intensive care units (NICU). Acute as well as prolonged (continuous and chronic) pain frequently occurs. Due to a lack of validated physiological measurement instruments for pain (e. g. saliva cortisol, skin conductance and heart rate variability) pain in neonatology can only be assessed by external observation through the bedside team with pain scores using a regular, standardized procedure. During this very vulnerable period pain and medications (analgesics/sedatives) can negatively influence the brain development of premature babies and neonates. Therefore, limitation of the number of pain stimuli and the medicinal guideline "as much as necessary but as little as possible" are eminently important. When dealing with prolonged (continuous and chronic) pain, further challenges are a reduction of analgesics and sedatives as well as avoidance of withdrawal symptoms.

Keywords: Analgesics, opioid; Benzodiazepines; Intensive care (NICU); Pain measurement; Substance withdrawal syndrome.