Trial reportAnnals of Saudi medicine
Oral sucrose and a pacifier for pain relief during simple procedures in preterm infants: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Annals of Saudi medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sucrose analgesia for venepuncture in neonates.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Sucrose or glucose compared to breast milk for pain control in preterm infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2025Pooled it
- Non-pharmacological management of infant and young child procedural pain.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Development of locally relevant clinical guidelines for procedure-related neonatal analgesic practice in Kenya: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Child & adolescent health · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Sucrose for analgesia in newborn infants undergoing painful procedures.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Non-pharmacological management of infant and young child procedural pain.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Pharmacological and Combined Interventions to Reduce Vaccine Injection Pain in Children and Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.The Clinical journal of pain · 2015Pooled it
- Occurrence of and referral to specialists for pain-related diagnoses in First Nations and non-First Nations children and youth.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2018Article
- Article
- Macular features from spectral-domain optical coherence tomography as an adjunct to indirect ophthalmoscopy in retinopathy of prematurity.Retina (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2011Article
- The effect of sucrose on infants during a painful procedure.Korean journal of pediatrics · 2010Article
- Optimizing hand-held spectral domain optical coherence tomography imaging for neonates, infants, and children.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2010Article
- Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Nurses' Knowledge and Use of Sucrose for Neonatal Pain Management in Saudi Arabia.SAGE open nursingArticle
- Nonpharmacological management of procedural pain in infants and young children: an abridged Cochrane review.Pain research & managementReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesPrevious randomized trials of the analgesic effects of sucrose, glucose, and a pacifier in term neonates have shown that the pacifier resulted in lower pain scores than glucose or sucrose, but the pacifier with and without sucrose did not differ. The current study was designed to assess the analgesic effect of pharmacologic (sucrose, water) and a non-pharmacologic measures (pacifier) in preterm infants and to find whether there is any synergism between these intervention in relieving pain during painful procedures. PATIENTS AND
methodsIn this double-blind, randomized, controlled study, 36 preterm infants (mean 31 weeks gestational age, range 27 to 36 weeks) were randomly allocated to six different regimens (0.5 mL sterile water with pacifier, 0.5 mL sterile water without pacifier, 0.5 mL sucrose 24% with pacifier, 0.5 mL sucrose 24% without pacifier, pacifier alone and control group) during a stay in intensive care of up to 15 days. Pain scores were measured with the Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP), a validated behavioral acute pain scale.
resultsOf all the regimens, the lowest pain scores occurred with the use of 24% sucrose solution combined with pacifier. The mean pain score for the combination of sucrose with pacifier was 0.7 as compared to 1.4 for the sterile water with pacifier group (P<.05).
conclusionThe synergistic effect of the combination of sucrose and non-nutritive sucking was clinically effective and safe in relieving the pain of simple procedures such as venipuncture or heel stick in preterm and term infants, but further research is needed on these interventions alone and in combination with other behavioral interventions in neonates.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.