Postoperative analgesic prescription and administration in a pediatric population

This study is a replication of the classic work conducted by Eland (1974) that investigates the prescription and administration of postoperative analgesics in a pediatric population. This study was conducted to compare and contrast results over almost 20 years to determine whether any changes have occurred in analgesic administration of children in the same large midwestern teaching hospital. This study retrospectively reviewed 25 patient charts matched by age grouping and surgical diagnosis to the original sample. Findings of the original study (Eland, 1974) showed that of the 25 children studied, 4 children did not have orders for pain medications. Only 12 children received an analgesic during hospitalization. The 12 children who were administered analgesics received a total of 24 doses (range 1 to 5 doses). Findings of the current study showed that all 25 children in the sample had orders for pain medications postoperatively and 23 children had orders for narcotic pain medications. All 25 children received an analgesic medication during hospitalization, and 20 children received narcotic pain medications. The total number of analgesics administered to this group was 968 doses (range 1 to 280 doses). The average number of doses administered was 3.3 doses per day. When examining only the first 48 postoperative hours, the average number of doses administered was 4.36 doses per day. The investigator concludes that the prescription and administration of analgesics in the pediatric population at this facility has improved dramatically over the past 18 years.