SynthesisMedicine2017
Effects of combined oral sucrose and nonnutritive sucking (NNS) on procedural pain of NICU newborns, 2001 to 2016: A PRISMA-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
10 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- The comparative efficacy and safety of sweet solutions to reduce preterm infants' pain levels: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- [Evidence-based guideline for neonatal pain management in China (2023)].Zhongguo dang dai er ke za zhi = Chinese journal of contemporary pediatrics · 2023Guideline
- Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Sucrose Versus Breast Milk as Non-Pharmacological Measures in the Management of Neonatal Pain: A Systematic Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Sweet taste stimulation reduced pain ratings associated with increased blood flow in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: A pilot study using NIRS.Biophysics and physicobiology · 2026Article
- Evaluating Effectiveness of the Use of an Extremity Stabilization Device for Vascular Access Procedures in Pediatrics.Journal of pediatric intensive care · 2024Article
- Efficacy and safety of non-pharmacological interventions for neonatal pain: an overview of systematic reviews.BMJ open · 2022Review
- Managing acute pain in children presenting to the emergency department without opioids.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2022Review
- Pain in Preterm Infants: Different Perspectives.The Journal of perinatal education · 2021Article
- Managing Procedural Pain in the Neonate Using an Opioid-sparing Approach.Clinical therapeutics · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBoth oral sucrose (OS) and nonnutritive sucking (NNS) are effective nonpharmacological methods to alleviate procedures pain in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) newborns when they were used alone, but the combined effect of OS+NNS remains controversial. So, we conducted this study to evaluate the efficiency of NNS combined with oral sucrose on pain relief in NICU newborns undergoing painful procedures.
methodsWe searched PubMed, Ovid (Medline), Embase (Medline), Cochrane Central Library, and other resources such as Google Scholar, bibliographies of included literatures for all available articles. Two reviewers screened literatures and extracted data independently. The fixed effects model was used to pool the results using Reviewer Manager (RevMan) 5.3. As each study included in our meta-analysis had been approved by Ethics Committee or institutional review board, thus our study did not need ethical approval.
resultsSeven randomized controlled trials, including 599 participants, were contained in our meta-analysis. The combination of oral sucrose and NNS is associated with reduced pain scores (mean difference [MD], -0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.68 to -0.36); shortened crying time (MD,-0.92; 95% CI, -1.39 to -0.44); but the 2 groups did not differ significantly in reducing bradycardia (MD, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.32-1.68), tachycardia (MD, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.38-1.10), or desaturations (MD, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.32-1.68).
conclusionThe pooled evidence indicates that the combination measures may serve as an evidence-based guideline for pain relief among patients having minor pain. Besides, it also indicates that OS combined with NNS can be an alternative for better prevention and management of procedure pain in NICU newborns. Nevertheless, the results may be limited due to incomplete data, and thus, more randomized controlled trials or well-designed studies are required to determine the effects of OS+NNS in the future.
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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.