Analgesics and sedatives in pediatric practice

Abstract

Like adults, children can experience many different types of acute and chronic pain. Pain perception in children is complex, and is often difficult to assess. There are several scales for children pain assessment like as visual, numeric and visual-descriptive scales. Pain can be treated by a variety of pharmacological and non-pharmacological means. Non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used for children with pain of mild to moderate intensity, opioids for children with moderate to severe pain, and adjuvant analgesics for chronic neuropathic pain. Sedatives/analgesics are also used in pediatrics for relieving anxiety and pain associated with diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

Deca, kao i odrasli, mogu da iskuse različite vrste akutnih i hroničnih bolova. Percepcija bola u dece je kompleksna i često je taj bol teško izmeriti. Za merenje bola koriste se vizuelne, numeričke, ili verbalno-deskriptivne skale. Bol može da se kontroliše primenom različitih farmakoloških i nefarmakoloških mera. Nesteroidni antiinflamatorni lekovi (NSAIL) koriste se za lečenje blagih do umerenih bolova u dece, opioidni analgetici za umerene i jake bolove, dok se za hronične neuropatske bolove koriste adjuvantni analgetici. Sedativi/analgetici se primenjuju u pedijatriji i za ublažavanje straha i bola u bolnim dijagnostičkim i terapijskim procedurama.