Anales de pediatría : publicación oficial de la Asociación Española de Pediatría (A.E.P.)
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This study was designed to validate a new paediatric acute pain scale, LLANTO, comparing its scores with those obtained from the CHEOPS scale in 54 Spanish children aged 1 month-6 years. LLANTO is an acronym of five behavioural or physiological variables previously shown to be associated with pain in children (crying, attitude, respiratory pattern, muscle tone and facial expression). The LLANTO pain scale was tested for validity and inter-rater reliability. ⋯ The positive correlation between both scales (r=0.804, P<0.0001) supported concurrent validity. Use of the κ statistic indicated that LLANTO scale yielded a perfect agreement with the CHEOPS scale, with an appropriate sensitivity and specificity (96% and 87% respectively). On the basis of data from this study, we recommend LLANTO as a valid, reliable and practical tool for Spanish speakers.