Acute and Procedure Pain in Infants and Children (Progress in Pain Research and Management Series, Vol. 20)

Acute pain is important not only in terms of the suffering it causes children, but also because it is almost invariably the first step in the development of chronic pain. The management of acute pain often determines children's later attitudes toward health care in general. How an institution manages acute pain is a marker for how it manages all forms of distress in suffering children.

Fifteen years ago, undermedication of postoperative pain in children was widespread in comparison to the treatment offered adults. Current systemic and regional analgesic techniques allow more aggressive treatment of acute pain, and the management of pediatric procedure pain has seen an upsurge in interest.

However, many challenges remain the impact of powerful analgesics on physical development, the management of pain in the cognitively impaired, the high prevalence of pain in sports injuries, ethics in pain management, and cultural and institutional constraints on transforming into clinical practice the knowledge gained from research.

This volume documents the past twenty years' progress in the aggressive management of acute pain in children. Leading clinicians and scientists discuss mapping the complex cascade of events occurring in response to pain in both the central and peripheral nervous systems and the many ways to manage acute pediatric pain.

This book represents the first attempt to address this topic from the perspective of basic science, clinical practice, and ethical responsibility. The editors have assembled an impressive array of internationally renowned clinicians and scientists whose contributions in this book will set the standard for future exploration of these topics.

G. Allen Finley, MD, FRCPC, Professor of Anesthesia and Psychology at Dalhousie University, is a Senior Clinical Research Scholar of the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine. Founder and Medical Director of the Pediatricd Pain Service at the IWK Health Centre, he has been a practicing pediatric anesthesiologist since 1986.

Patrick J. McGrath, PhD, Killiam Professor of Psychology and Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Biomedical Engineering at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, is a Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Pain.