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Review
. 2022 Feb 11;9(2):244.
doi: 10.3390/children9020244.

Assessment and Management of Pain in Preterm Infants: A Practice Update

Marsha Campbell-Yeo  1   2   3 , Mats Eriksson  4 , Britney Benoit  5
Affiliations
Review

Assessment and Management of Pain in Preterm Infants: A Practice Update

Marsha Campbell-Yeo et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Infants born preterm are at a high risk for repeated pain exposure in early life. Despite valid tools to assess pain in non-verbal infants and effective interventions to reduce pain associated with medical procedures required as part of their care, many infants receive little to no pain-relieving interventions. Moreover, parents remain significantly underutilized in provision of pain-relieving interventions, despite the known benefit of their involvement. This narrative review provides an overview of the consequences of early exposure to untreated pain in preterm infants, recommendations for a standardized approach to pain assessment in preterm infants, effectiveness of non-pharmacologic and pharmacologic pain-relieving interventions, and suggestions for greater active engagement of parents in the pain care for their preterm infant.

Keywords: NICU; assessment; infant; management; neonate; pain; preterm; procedural.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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