Children's pain in hospital undertreated: study

A look at Canadian children's hospitals finds that doctors aren't documenting pain relief for the majority of painful or uncomfortable procedures kids experience in the hospital. For seven out of every 10 procedures -- things like blood sampling and inserting or removing intravenous lines and catheters -- children received no pain treatment specific to that procedure, although eight out of 10 procedures were done within 24 hours of some pain relief. "Our worry is that (children) are getting painful procedures without any pain management," said Bonnie Stevens, MD, the lead researcher on the study and a professor at the University of Toronto. Stevens and her colleagues collected data from eight children's hospitals over a 6-month period.