A Study to Test the Pain-relieving Effect of Laughing Gas in Infants
Status:
Withdrawn
Trial end date:
1969-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
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).