• James R Marceau, Henry Murray, and Ralph K H Nanan.
• Department of Paediatrics, Nepean Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia.
• Neonatology. 2010 Jan 1;97(1):67-70.

BackgroundOne report indicated that taste-induced analgesia was sub-optimal in methadone-exposed (ME) infants.ObjectivesThe purpose of this work was to compare the effects of oral sucrose in infants born to methadone-maintained mothers with control infants.MethodsThe aim was to compare the effects of an oral sucrose solution in infants scheduled to have a heel lance procedure for routine newborn screening. Infants received 0.05 ml (one drop) of a 24% sucrose solution by mouth 2 min before a heel lance procedure, then a further 0.05 ml of sucrose at the time of the heel lance; this was repeated every 1-2 min until 30 s after the completion of the procedure. The primary outcome measure was pain. We assessed pain using the Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP), which is a validated composite pain assessment tool.ResultsPIPP scores were similar in both infant groups. Median PIPP scores of the ME infant group versus the control infant group were 2.0 (interquartile range (IQR) 0-7) versus 2.0 (IQR 0-9) at the time of the heel lance (p = 0.99) and 2.0 (IQR 0-4) versus 1.0 (IQR 0-4) 30 s after the completion of the heel lance procedure (p = 0.28).ConclusionsThis study found no differences in the pain responses of ME infants and non-exposed infants when given sucrose during heel lance procedures.Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

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