Comparison of Animation Distraction Versus Local Anesthetic Application for Pain Alleviation in Children Undergoing Intravenous Cannulation: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Medical procedures induce behavioral discomfort, fear, and worry in children and their families, worsening their agony. Reading, playing video games, and watching television lessen anxiety and discomfort. This study aims to compare the pain reduction in children using animation distraction and two percent lignocaine with the control group undergoing intravenous (IV) cannulation using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) at a tertiary care hospital in Kolenchery, Kerala, South India, and to study the clinico-social factors influencing pain reduction in children undergoing IV cannulation. Materials and methods This is an open-label, randomized controlled trial study of 60 children admitted in a pediatric ward, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), or emergency department randomly assigned to either two percent lignocaine application, animation distraction, or control during intravenous cannulation. Children aged six to twelve years requiring IV cannulation for different illnesses were included. Twenty children were randomly assigned to the lignocaine group, twenty to the distraction group, and twenty to the control group. The visual analogue scale was used to measure the subjective pain intensity of the children during IV cannulation. We did statistical analysis using SPSS software version 21 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results Age, gender, previous history of cannulation, site, and size of the cannula were not significantly different between the groups. We did not relate the education of the mother to the VAS scores. The mean VAS score for pain at zero, one, and five minutes was lower in the distraction group compared to the lignocaine and control groups. The mean VAS score for pain at zero, one, and five minutes was not superior among the lignocaine group compared to the control group. Conclusion Based on the findings, animation distraction is preferable to lignocaine to alleviate pain in children requiring IV cannulation for a variety of disorders. Distraction is one of the nonpharmacological techniques that seek to alleviate pain by encouraging the patient to focus on something other than the current procedure. In addition to reducing pain and anxiety during excruciating invasive interventions, distraction techniques reduce the number of interventions required and allow for the completion of interventions in less time.