Children’s pain and distress while undergoing an acute radiographic examination

Abstract

Pain has been highlighted as a main concern for children in conjunction with an acuteradiographicexamination. The aim of this study was to further investigate children’spain and distress while undergoing an acuteradiographicexamination.

The study comprised 29 participants with an age range of 5–15 years who were injured and submitted to an acuteradiographicexamination of the upper or lower extremity when the question at issue was fracture. The Coloured Analogue Scale (CAS) and the Facial Affective Scale (FAS) were used as self-reporting scales to measure the children’spain and distress. The Face, Legs, Activity, Cry and Consolability Behavioural scale (FLACC) was used as an observation tool to assess behaviours associated with pain in children.

Descriptive statistics were used when analysing the scores, and the results showed that children experience pain and distress in conjunction with a radiographicexamination after an injury. Spearman’s correlation was used to compare variables, and significant correlations were obtained between the self-reported pain and the observed pain behaviour. Fischer’s Exact test was used to compare groups, and when using the cut-off 3.0 on the self-reporting scale no significant correlation was found concerning the pain reported by children diagnosed with and without a fracture. No significant correlations were found concerning the self-reported distress and pain either, regardless of whether it was a first-time visit and whether a parent was near during the examination.