Study Uncovers Shortcomings in Pain Management for Preterm Babies in Intensive Care
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A large proportion of babies born very early need intensive care, which can be painful. But the healthcare system fails to provide pain relief to the full extent. This is shown by the largest survey to date of pain in neonatal care, published in the journal Pain.
Every day for 4.5 years, neonatal care staff have recorded the occurrence of pain, the causes of pain, and how pain is assessed and treated in premature babies in Sweden. The study covers 3,686 babies born between 22 and 31 weeks of gestation from 2020 to 2024. The total observation time was just over 185,000 days of care.
The researchers found that babies born extremely early, in weeks 22 to 23, had the highest proportion of painful medical conditions and almost daily painful intensive care procedures throughout the first month after birth. However, this is not surprising.
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