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Oral analgesics may be unnecessary for children undergoing outpatient removal of percutaneous pins
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Oral analgesics are unlikely to aid the ability of children to deal with pain after the outpatient removal of percutaneous fracture fixation pins, according to recently published data.
“Neither acetaminophen nor ibuprofen significantly reduced the pain score or heart rate associated with percutaneous pin removal in children as compared with the placebo,” Kevin Boon Leong Lim, FRCS(Eng), FRCSEd(Orth), FAMS(Ortho Surgery) and colleagues, wrote in the study.
Lim and colleagues studied 240 children ages 5 years to 12 years with two or three percutaneous pins in the elbow following fixation of supracondylar humeral fracture or lateral humeral condyle fracture with closed reduction and percutaneous pinning. Patients were randomized into one of three 80-patient cohorts who received either acetaminophen, ibuprofen or a vitamin C placebo 1 hour prior to pin removal. Pain scores and heart rate measurements were obtained prior to the pin removal, directly following the procedure and 10 minutes after the pin removal.
Pain score values and heart rate measurements did not statistically or clinically differ among the groups. Changes from baseline values did not significantly differ among the patients for either pain score value or heart rate measurement at either follow-up time. Mean difference in pain scores directly following pin removal between the acetaminophen cohort and ibuprofen cohort was 0.10, 0.35 between the acetaminophen group and the placebo group, and 0.25 between the ibuprofen group and the placebo group. Pain score values and heart rates returned to baseline within 10 minutes after pin removal.
Reference:
Lim K. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2014;doi:10.2106/JBJS.M.00806.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.