RESUMO
AIMS: To evaluate the effectiveness of an analgesic protocol with nitrous oxide and anaesthetic cream (lidocaine and prilocaine, EMLA) for children undergoing botulinum toxin injections. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Prospective study including 51 injection sessions, 34 children with a mean age of 5.94 (range 2-15) and 209 injected muscles. Pain was evaluated with the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Pain Scale (CHEOPS), the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Face Pain Scale (FPS) for the children and with a VAS for the parents. RESULTS: CHEOPS score for the 51 sessions was 8.50 (S.D. 3.56). Forty-nine percent of scores were above the therapeutic threshold of 9; 25% of the children evaluated the pain above the therapeutic threshold of 3; 44.74% of the parents' estimations exceeded 3. No correlation was found between age, weight, number of injected muscle and CHEOPS score. CONCLUSION: The association of MEOPA and anaesthetic cream is only effective for 50% of children. This is much lower than treatments for other types of acute induced pain in children. Botulinum toxin injections and cerebral palsy children present certain specificities which require improvements in this analgesic protocol.
