Abstract

NOTEJANE, Martín; LE PERA, Valeria  and  BERNADA, Mercedes. Knowledge related to pain management in children: Survey to postgraduate students and residents. Arch. Pediatr. Urug. [online]. 2016, vol.87, n.4, pp.323-331. ISSN 0004-0584.

Introduction: pain is a public health problem at all ages. Children are at particular risk of receiving insufficient treatment. A survey to resident doctors at Maciel Hospital showed that 75% of them did not know the analgesic ladder from the World Health Organization (WHO) and 67% did not prescribe morphine when indicated. Objective: to describe the level of knowledge of postgraduate and resident doctors who care for children, considering the WHO principles for pain treatment and their expressed analgesic prescription practice. Methodology: A descriptive, transversal and anonymous survey was performed. Results: 131 doctors answered the survey; 98% declared they treat children in pain, 43% do it frequently; 70% stated that they knew the WHO analgesic ladder; 76% correctly identified drugs belonging to the first step and 4% the ones of the second. Regarding morphine: 61% never prescribed it, the most frequent reason for not doing it was: 'it was not necessary': 49%; correctly reported not having a maximum dose: 48%; expressed correct interval dose: 44%; reported 2 adjuvant drugs: 28%; having read one article related to pain in the last 3 years: 39%. Conclusions: deficits in the following areas were found: lack of knowledge of drugs to treat severe pain; adjuvant drugs; morphine pharmacological and pharmacokinetic properties, more than half of the interviewees never prescribed morphine. Limited reading regarding this frequent health problem was found.

Keywords : PAIN MANAGEMENT; CHILD.

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