Pharmacological and Nonpharmacological Methods for Children in Venipuncture Pain

This study aimed to examine the effect of EMLA cream, cold spray, and Buzzy applied during venipuncture on the pain and fear levels of children aged 7-12 years.

The International Guide to Pediatric Anesthesia (Good Practice in Postoperative and Procedural Pain) recommends pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods to effectively manage and prevent acute procedural pain in children. Nonpharmacological methods alone or in combination with pharmacological methods help reduce pain, and therefore, have become popular especially in recent years. For pain management, nonpharmacological methods are easy to use, and cost- and time-effective methods with no side effects. Studies have evaluated a large number of pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions for procedural pain management in children. However, most of those interventions are not used by healthcare professionals because they are expensive, time-consuming or hard to use. Therefore, easy-to-use, practical, non-invasive, cost-effective, and reusable pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods can be used especially in acute settings. EMLA cream, cold spray, and Buzzy examined in this study may serve as alternative effective pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods to reduce venipuncture pain and fear.