Pain management in paediatric trauma patients with long bone fracture

This study was done to review and describe the care of paediatric trauma patients with respect to pain assessment and medication administration.

A retrospective review of paediatric trauma patients, age <16 with a long bone fracture and GCS=15, cared for by our paediatric trauma response team (January 1998-August 2002). A single trained abstractor reviewed all records. Data were descriptively analysed.

Fifty-six children were included. All but three received pain medication during resuscitation. The median time to first dose of pain medication after arrival was 20 min (95% CI: 14-29 min). The median pre- and post-treatment pain scores, on a 5-point scale, were 4 and 2, respectively. Vital signs were unaffected.

As a group, our paediatric trauma resuscitation team did a much better job managing pain, in this segment of the population, than the preponderance of existing literature would predict.