Pharmacologic Approaches to Pediatric Acute Pain States

Children may experience acute pain for a variety of reasons, including surgical procedures, oncologic processes, and sickle cell vaso-occlusive episodes. A thoughtful analgesia plan must consider the source of pain, patient developmental level, prior opioid use, ability to tolerate oral medications, and patient comorbidities. Opioid pain medications are effective at treating acute pain, but are associated with significant side effects at higher doses. Multimodal analgesia is a strategy that utilizes multiple nonopioid medications working synergistically at different locations along the pain pathway to achieve better pain control with an improved side effect profile compared to opioids alone.