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HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System Facilitates Intravenous Cannulation in Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Evangeline Lim1, Teddy Fabila, Thong Sze Ying
1Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
Insights
The HEADPLAY personal cinema system (PCS) effectively distracted children during IV cannulation, showing high acceptance and satisfaction. While not significantly reducing pain or anxiety, it improved the overall experience for pediatric patients.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Anesthesiology
- Medical Device Technology
- Pain Management
Background:
- Intravenous cannulation in children can cause significant anxiety and pain.
- Distraction therapy is commonly used to mitigate procedural distress.
- Novel technologies are being explored to enhance distraction methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the HEADPLAY personal cinema system (PCS) as a distraction tool during pediatric intravenous cannulation.
- To compare the efficacy of HEADPLAY PCS against conventional distraction therapy.
- To assess children's anxiety, pain, and satisfaction levels.
Main Methods:
- A randomized study involving 60 children undergoing anesthesia.
- Group 1 used HEADPLAY PCS for distraction; Group 2 received conventional therapy.
- EMLA cream was used for local anesthesia; anxiety assessed via mYPAS.
Main Results:
- No statistically significant differences in pain or anxiety scores between groups.
- HEADPLAY PCS group reported marginally higher satisfaction, not reaching statistical significance.
- 86.6% of children in the HEADPLAY PCS group desired its use in the future.
Conclusions:
- HEADPLAY PCS is an acceptable distraction tool for pediatric intravenous cannulation.
- The system can contribute to improved patient satisfaction during the procedure.
- Further research may explore optimizing its use for pain and anxiety reduction.
Abstract:
HEADPLAY personal cinema system (PCS) is a portable visual headset/visor through which movie clips may be viewed. We studied the use of HEADPLAY PCS as a distraction tool in facilitating intravenous cannulation in children undergoing anaesthesia. 60 children were enrolled into the study and randomized into 2 groups. EMLA local anaesthetic cream was used to reduce the pain associated with intravenous cannulation. Children in group 1 wore the HEADPLAY visor whereas children in group 2 were subject to conventional distraction therapy. Children were asked to rate their anxiety, pain, and satisfaction scores after intravenous cannulation. Periprocedural anxiety was also determined using the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (mYPAS). There were no statistically significant differences in terms of pain and anxiety scores between the 2 groups. Although the satisfaction score of the children in the HEADPLAY PCS group was marginally higher compared to the conventional group, this did not hit statistical significance. 86.6% of children in group 1 reported that they would want to use the visor again for their next intravenous cannulation. We conclude that HEADPLAY PCS is a distraction tool that is acceptable to most children and can contribute towards satisfaction of the intravenous cannulation process in children.

