Promoting the use of sucrose as analgesia for procedural pain management in neonates: A review of the current literature

Assessment and treatment of pain in neonatal
nursing are important areas for consideration and
our practice in relation to pain management must
be evidence based. Unlike adults or children,
neonates cannot tell us when they are in pain and
it is therefore our responsibility as caregivers to
recognise when they are and to act upon it using
evidence based principles. One area that has
attracted much research interest over the past
few years is the use of sucrose as analgesia for
procedural pain management in neonates. This
practice, in the author’s opinion, is certainly not
utilised across all neonatal units and so is certainly
not standardised or universal practice by any
means at present within the UK