Society for Pediatric Pain Medicine
Better Care for Children in Pain

The CDC has just released an updated clinical practice guideline for prescribing Opioids for Pain. Although, the guideline is for patients over 18 years of age, pediatric practitioners often consult adult guidelines to guide their own practice. The guideline addresses the following four areas: 1) determining whether or not to initiate opioids for pain, 2) selecting opioids and determining opioid dosages, 3) deciding duration of initial opioid prescription and conducting follow-up, and 4) assessing risk and addressing potential harms of opioid use.

Follow to review this important update: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/rr/rr7103a1.htm. 

Meier et all has recently published a case series looking at robotic pyeloplasty in the pediatiric population utilizing a pathway that included caudal single injection block, acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Patients were not given an opioid prescription at discharge and none were seen within the 30 day postoperative period due to pain.

Follow the link to the study: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/epub/10.1089/end.2022.0263

Dr. Doralina L. Anghelescu et al have published a retrospective study examining regional anesthesia for pediatric patients who undergo amputation/limb sparing surgery and whether particular techniques help decrease chronic postsurgical pain. SPOILER: one method showed significantly decreased rates of chronic postsurgical pain of a neuropathic nature. Follow the link for free access to the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cnr2.1719

The DEA would like patients to know about the opportunity to dispose of unwanted, unused medications on Saturday, October 29, 2022, from 10am-2pm, and they can go to https://www.dea.gov/takebackday#collection-locator to find a location near their home.