A Study to Test the Pain-Relieving Effect of Laughing Gas in Infants



Status:Recruiting
Conditions:Women's Studies
Therapuetic Areas:Reproductive
Healthy:No
Age Range:Any
Updated:4/2/2016

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Analgesic Effect of Nitrous Oxide in Neonates Undergoing Heel Stick

Our proposal is to study infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) who are
undergoing a heel stick for blood sampling, a standard procedure in patient care. Currently,
these infants do not get any pain relief for this procedure. Several recent clinical studies
have shown the usefulness of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) for treating pain for minor
procedures in children 0 to 18 years, but these effects have not been exclusively studied in
the newborn and infant populations. Animal studies have questioned the anti-nociceptive
(pain-blocking) effect of nitrous oxide in very young animals. It is unclear if this also
applies to humans. The reason for this difference may be due to an immaturity of the neural
pathways that modulate pain in the very young. The purpose of this study is to investigate
whether or not nitrous oxide has an analgesic (pain-relieving) effect in infants undergoing
minor procedures in the neonatal period (less than 3 months).


Inclusion Criteria:

- Full-term babies up to three months old scheduled for heel stick blood draw.

Exclusion Criteria:

- preterm, difficult airway (micrognathia, cranio-facial malformation, choanal atresia,
Pierre Robin syndrome, or Treacher Collins syndrome), sedated, intubated (including
tracheostomy), have an oxygen requirement (FiO2>40%), anemia, bone marrow
suppression, or cardiac defect
We found this trial at
1
site
757 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, California 90024
(310) 825-9111
UCLA Medical Center Founded in 1955, UCLA Medical Center became Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center...
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mi
from
Los Angeles, CA
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