Procedural pain is the term used today to describe the pain that occurs in connection with diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures. It is often short-term and of moderate intensity.
Children's pain is often under-estimated in the health service and they consequently often receive inadequate pain relief. In addition, procedures such as needle insertion, injections, application of dressings on wounds can be experienced as more frightening than for adults as they do not always understand the benefit.Nitrous oxide has a calming and pain-relieving effect
Nitrous oxide is a well proven and documented pain-killing gas. The gas has been used for many years for pain relief in childbirth, in dental care and in emergency and ambulance care.
Nitrous oxide has properties and effects that are desirable in a medicinal product in the treatment of procedural pain in children. It is both calming and pain-relieving. In addition, no needle is required to deliver nitrous oxide, and administration is easy to control. The pain-killing effect arrives within about a minute, and the effects fade rapidly after administration has ended. The side-effects are mild, the most common being nausea, dizziness and "loss of control". But these side-effects usually disappear quickly when administration of nitrous oxide ends.
The child can leave the hospital within about half an hour after the procedure has ended.
