Guidelines for treatment of acute pain in children – the consensus statement of the Section of Paediatric Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy of the Polish Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy

RATIONALE AND SCOPE OF THE GUIDELINES

Pain is a subjective unpleasant sensory and emotional experience. Acute pain occurs irrespective of age and has a prevalence of about 5% of the general population. Surgical procedures and painful diagnostic procedures are the main causes of this unpleasant and dangerous phenomenon for hospitalized children. It should be remembered that maintaining

homeostasis in a child undergoing surgery is also affected by provision of an adequate level of analgesia and sedation as well as nerve conduction block within the surgical site. Even though both paediatric anaesthesiologists and paediatric surgeons know that the therapeutic activities during the perioperative period should be focused on ensuring sufficient analgesia and haemodynamic stability in surgical patients, as many as 70% of children undergoing surgery may experience moderate to severe pain [1–7].

Moreover, pain management is one of the fundamental human rights, i.e. the right to relief of suffering. According to the declaration of the 13th World Congress on Pain in Montreal (September 2010), this right also includes children [8, 9]. In Poland, the law was amended in 2017, and now each patient is guaranteed the right to relief and treatment of pain (Journal of Laws of 2017, item 836). Unfortunately, this right is not always respected in paediatric patients.

Many factors contribute to ineffective analgesia in paediatric patients, mainly insufficient knowledge and lack of experience (concerning the use of opioids

in particular), as well as lack of management standards, the negative attitude of the personnel or poor organization [10–13]. In hospitals which, as a result of organizational changes, have implemented

analgesic treatment regimens and regularly educate their personnel in these issues, both efficiency and effectiveness of pain relief in children are high [14].

For many years, Polish paediatric anaesthesio­logists have been promoting and streamlining the analgesic management of children, which has led to the development of the present publication.

The regimens presented in it are based on both the latest medical reports and many years of the authors’ experience. The classes of recommendations and levels of evidence have been prepared (Tables 1 and 2, respectively). The presented recommendations were formulated based on a survey of medical reports published in the last two decades.