Newborns in NICUs experience many painful procedures. Nonpharmacological managements such as massage therapy and Kangaroo care are shown to reduce pain after procedures.
In this study our aim was to compare the effect of oral 10% dextrose solution, 5 minutes of massage therapy and 5 minutes of Kangaroo care on NIPS scores after venipuncture in newborns.
Newborns with gestational age ≥34 weeks in NICU or rooming in with their mothers were randomly enrolled to one of three groups and a blinded investigator scored the pain using NIPS before and after the procedure.
There were 27, 26 and 23 newborns in dextrose, massage and Kangaroo care, respectively. There were no statistically difference between groups in terms of gestational age, gender, birth weight, time of last feeding, feeding with mother milk/formula and venipuncture site. Pain scores were similar before and after venipuncture in groups (p> 0.05). After the procedure, infants with a score of 0-2 (no pain) included 40.7%, 46.2% and 43.5%; infants with a score of 3-4 (light- moderate pain) included 29.6%, 7.7% and 13% and infants with a score of 5-8 (severe pain) included 29.6%, 46.2% and 43.5% of the groups in dextrose, massage and Kangaroo care, respectively (p> 0.05). Although number of infants with severe pain score was lower in dextrose group, difference was statistically nonsignificant.
Although nonpharmacological methods were used, almost one third of the infants experienced severe pain. So our aim should be to decrease the number of invasive procedures in NICUs.