Are premature babies suffering in silence? Brain scans suggest that their faces don鈥檛 always show when they are in pain.
Nurses check whether pre-term babies in intensive care are in pain by measuring their heart rate, oxygen levels in their blood and whether they grimace or not 鈥� a series of measurements known as the 鈥減remature infant pain profile鈥�. This helps them decide when to give painkillers.
Now Rebeccah Slater and colleagues at , UK, have shown that babies may be in pain without exhibiting any of these signs.
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They scanned the brains of prematurely born babies as blood was taken from their heel for routine analysis. In 33 scans on 12 babies, a part of the brain known to register pain in adults 鈥� called the somatosensory cortex 鈥� was activated.
Yet in 10 of these procedures, the babies did not grimace or show outward signs of pain. 鈥淚n some cases infants still had a cortical response without a change in facial expression,鈥� Slater says.
Slater says that pain scores could be improved through further brain studies, and hopes next to see whether pain relief dampens activity in babies鈥� brains.
Journal reference: (DOI: 10.1371/Journal.pmed0050129.sg001)
