ReviewPediatrics2010
Considerations for using sucrose to reduce procedural pain in preterm infants.
Review in Pediatrics, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 4 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
33 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 114 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
- Nonpharmacological Interventions on Intramuscular Vaccination Pain among Infants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Control Trials.Journal of caring sciences · 2025Pooled it
- [Non-pharmaceutical measures, topical analgesics and oral administration of glucose in pain management: Austrian interdisciplinary recommendations on pediatric perioperative pain management].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2014Guideline
- Efficacy of oral sucrose for preterm infants undergoing point-of-care lung ultrasound: a randomized assessor-blinded controlled trial.European journal of pediatrics · 2026Trial
- Blinded randomized crossover trial: Skin-to-skin care vs. sucrose for preterm neonatal pain.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2020Trial
- Oral glucose in preterm neonates during oropharyngeal suctioning: a randomized controlled cross-over trial.European journal of pediatrics · 2015Trial
- Sucrose and warmth for analgesia in healthy newborns: an RCT.Pediatrics · 2015Trial
- Trial
- Trial of repeated analgesia with Kangaroo Mother Care (TRAKC Trial).BMC pediatrics · 2013Trial
- Warmth is analgesic in healthy newborns.Pain · 2012Trial
- Oral sucrose as an analgesic drug for procedural pain in newborn infants: a randomised controlled trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2010Trial
- Sweet relief or lasting impacts? Review of neonatal pain and sucrose in developing rodents.Pain reports · 2025Article
- Neonatal Sucrose and Internalizing Behaviors at 18 Months in Children Born Very Preterm.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- A longitudinal observational study on the epidemiology of painful procedures and sucrose administration in hospitalized preterm neonates.Paediatric & neonatal pain · 2024Article
- Editorial: Pain in infants: pain management practices and the association with outcome.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Infant pain vs. pain with parental suppression: Immediate and enduring impact on brain, pain and affect.PloS one · 2023Article
- Sex-specific effects of neonatal oral sucrose treatment on growth and liver choline and glucocorticoid metabolism in adulthood.American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology · 2021Article
- A Review of Non-Pharmacological Treatments for Pain Management in Newborn Infants.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Review
- The Energy Costs of Prematurity and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Experience.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Preterm and critically ill newborns admitted to a NICU undergo repeated skin-breaking procedures that are necessary for their survival. Sucrose is rapidly becoming the accepted clinical standard nonpharmacologic intervention for managing acute procedural pain for these infants. Although shown to be safe in single doses, only 4 studies have evaluated the effects of repeated doses of sucrose over relatively short periods of time. None has examined the use of sucrose throughout the NICU stay, and only 1 study evaluated the neurodevelopmental outcomes after repeated doses of sucrose. In that study, infants born at <31 weeks' gestational age and exposed to >10 doses per day in the first week of life were more likely to show poorer attention and motor development in the early months after discharge from the NICU. Results of studies in animal models have suggested that the mechanism of action of sucrose is through opioid pathways; however, in human infants, little has been done to examine the physiologic mechanisms involved, and the findings reported thus far have been ambiguous. Drawing from the growing animal literature of research that has examined the effects of chronic sugar exposure, we describe alternative amine and hormone pathways that are common to the processing of sucrose, attention, and motor development. In addition, a review of the latest research to examine the effects of repeated sucrose on pain processing is presented. These 2 literatures each can inform the other and can provide an impetus to initiate research to examine not only the mechanisms involved in the calming mechanisms of sucrose but also in the long-term neurodevelopmental effects of repeated sucrose in those infants born extremely preterm or critically ill.
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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.