[Criteria for the evaluation of neonatal pain]

The common opinion about the painful sensation in newborn and in premature baby, is that the experience of pain begins since birth. One of the difficulties in taking care of pain in neonatology is the valuation of the symptom: actually there aren't enough sensitive and standard methods to define and quantify the pain of newborns and prematures babies. The authors illustrate two scales of pain valuation, that have been tested and then adopted by different french groups. These scales allow to examine respectively, the healthy newborn and the newborn after surgical care and permit also an objective measure of newborn malaise sensation. These scores need the valuation of clinical signs and physiological parameters that are sometimes neglected during the execution of invasive techniques; therefore these tables would awaken the sanitary staff to newborn expressions of pain or discomfort, allowing a best comprehension of baby's feelings and facilitating in this nursing and pharmacological interventions to relieve pain.