A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of educating parents about distraction to decrease postoperative pain in children at home after tonsillectomy.

Today, parents are more involved with postoperative pain management, because children are discharged as early as possible after surgery. The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to determine the effectiveness of educating parents to provide distraction in addition to pharmacologic pain management in decreasing postoperative pain at home for children ages 3 to 7 years. Ninety-three children aged 3-7 years having tonsillectomy at Landspitali, The National University Hospital of Iceland, and their parents were randomized to one of two intervention groups.

Parents' knowledge and choice of paracetamol dosing forms in 3- to 6-year-old children.

Paracetamol is one of the most common medicines administered to children and is available in suppositories, mixtures, drops and tablets. Orally administered paracetamol is more rapidly and completely absorbed and is, in general, more acceptable to children. In Iceland, the most common route of paracetamol administration is per rectum.

Temperament and pain in 3 to 7-year-old children undergoing tonsillectomy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among temperament, self-reported pain, parent's report of children's pain behavior and pain intensity, amount of pain medication received, and parents' attitudes toward use of analgesics in 3- to 7-year-old children undergoing tonsillectomy. Sixty-eight child/parent dyads participated in the study. Correlations were found between some temperamental factors and child's self-reported pain intensity in the hospital and at home as well as parents' report of pain behavior at home.