EFFECT OF LOW DOSE VENOUS FENTANYL IN REDUCING THE PAIN OF LUMBAR PUNCTURE IN INFANTS

Although there have been various studies on the agents reducing pain in infants, but inadequate researches are available in which the effect of low dose of fentanyl in pain reducing in infants has been investigated. To find out the low dose effect of fentanyl on the pain reducing resulted from lumbar puncture in infants. This randomized double blind clinical trial was done on the 82 infants in age group 2-7 years old age were undertaking lumbar puncture. Subjects were randomly divided to two equal groups receiving different trials. The trial given to patients in group I was 0.15 mg/kg venous midazolam plus placebo (saline normal) and in group II was midazolam with the same dosage plus venous fentanyl 1.5 microgram/kg. There were no sex and age discrepancies between two groups. It was observed that the mean pain score was significantly lower in group receiving fentanyl (2.4 ± 1.5) compared with placebo group (5.1 ± 2.1) (P < 0.001). The mean heart rate during puncture was also significantly lower among subjects in fentanyl group (105.6 ± 5.86) than in placebo group (119.2 ± 10.17) (P < 0.001). Our study showed that venous fentanyl plus midazolam compared to combination of midazolam and placebo lowers significantly pain due to cerebrospinal puncture in infants.