Oral sucrose as an analgesic drug for procedural pain in
newborn infants: a randomised controlled trial
Rebeccah Slater, Laura Cornelissen*, Lorenzo Fabrizi*, Debbie Patten, Jan Yoxen, Alan Worley, Stewart Boyd, Judith Meek†, Maria Fitzgerald†
Summary
Background Many infants admitted to hospital undergo repeated invasive procedures. Oral sucrose is frequently given
to relieve procedural pain in neonates on the basis of its eff ect on behavioural and physiological pain scores. We
assessed whether sucrose administration reduces pain-specific brain and spinal cord activity after an acute noxious
procedure in newborn infants.
Methods In this double-blind, randomised controlled trial, 59 newborn infants at University College Hospital (London,
UK) were randomly assigned to receive 0•5 mL 24% sucrose solution or 0•5 mL sterile water 2 min before undergoing
a clinically required heel lance. Randomisation was by a computer-generated randomisation code, and researchers,
clinicians, participants, and parents were masked to the identity of the solutions. The primary outcome was painspecific
brain activity evoked by one time-locked heel lance, recorded with electroencephalography and identifi ed by
principal component analysis. Secondary measures were baseline behavioural and physiological measures,
observational pain scores (PIPP), and spinal nociceptive refl ex withdrawal activity. Data were analysed per protocol.
This study is registered, number ISRCTN78390996.
Findings 29 infants were assigned to receive sucrose and 30 to sterilised water; 20 and 24 infants, respectively, were
included in the analysis of the primary outcome measure. Nociceptive brain activity after the noxious heel lance did
not diff er signifi cantly between infants who received sucrose and those who received sterile water (sucrose: mean 0•10,
95% CI 0•04–0•16; sterile water: mean 0•08, 0•04–0•12; p=0•46). No signifi cant diff erence was recorded between the
sucrose and sterile water groups in the magnitude or latency of the spinal nociceptive refl ex withdrawal recorded
from the biceps femoris of the stimulated leg. The PIPP score was signifi cantly lower in infants given sucrose than in
those given sterile water (mean 5•8, 95% CI 3•7–7•8 vs 8•5, 7•3–9•8; p=0•02) and signifi cantly more infants had no
change in facial expression after sucrose administration (seven of 20 [35%] vs none of 24; p<0•0001).
Interpretation Our data suggest that oral sucrose does not signifi cantly aff ect activity in neonatal brain or spinal cord
nociceptive circuits, and therefore might not be an eff ective analgesic drug. The ability of sucrose to reduce clinical
observational scores after noxious events in newborn infants should not be interpreted as pain relief.
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