WASHINGTON-Whiffs of nitrous oxide can relieve little kids’ pain and anxiety in the ER.
A Maine Medical Center team says that as an anxiolytic for lacerations and other minor ER procedures, a 50-50 mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen works as well for kids 2 to 7 years old as it does for older children.
In a prospective randomized study of 30 patients, the 17 who inhaled the mixture during laceration repair had a median pain score drop of five points from baseline, vs. an increase of three points for 13 controls sniffing 100% oxygen, Dr. John Burton told the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine meeting here.
Median anxiety scores fell a point for the N2O recipients and rose a point for controls.
To keep the kids from rejecting nasal masks, they were lined with grape-, orange-, or bubble-gum-scented lip balm. Bubblegum was by far the favorite, says Dr. Burton.
