Sublingual Analgesia for Acute Abdominal Pain in Children
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2017-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Acute abdominal pain is a frequent symptom in children admitted to the emergency department .
In the past the fear of masking a surgical condition has justified withholding analgesia in
patients with acute abdominal pain. By the 2000s, some clinical trials established that
opioid analgesia before surgical consultation does not affect diagnostic accuracy or outcome
in children with acute abdominal pain. Despite this, acute abdominal pain is still
undertreated in this setting. Published paediatric trials studied the effect of opioid
analgesia administered by parenteral route or by mouth. To the best of our knowledge no study
investigated the effectiveness of sublingual analgesia.
The purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to assess the effectiveness of three
different drugs (ketorolac, tramadol, paracetamol), administered by the sublingual route, in
children complaining of acute abdominal pain.