Pain management for pediatric tonsillectomy: an integrative review through the perioperative and home experience.

Purpose: This integrative review aims to increase our understanding of current pain management care practices for children undergoing tonsillectomy.

Conclusions: Synthesis of the literature resulted in four main opportunities for care providers to manage pain: preoperative education and preparation, intraoperative surgical interventions, and postoperative pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions in the post anesthesia care unit and home settings.

Practice Implications: Nurses have many opportunities to understand pain management practices and intervene to minimize pain experienced in pediatric outpatients undergoing tonsillectomy.