Time-Contingent Dosing of an Opioid Analgesic After Tonsillectomy Does Not Increase Moderate-to-Severe Side Effects in Children

Around-the-Clock (ATC) Dosing of Analgesics

“…Another study randomized children to receive ATC or PRN acetaminophen plus codeine after tonsillectomy and found no differences in pain intensity ratings or pain relief scores. 8 Both groups experienced moderate to severe pain, and similar to the previous study, more analgesic (two times more) was consumed by those in the ATC group. There were no differences in adverse effects, such as nausea and vomiting, sedation, and dizziness, which were described as moderate to severe.…”

The effect of preoperative fasting on postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting in pediatric ambulatory tonsillectomy

“…The parents, and also the nurses, may underestimate, e.g. the child's pain [4,40,36], and thus the children's self-report ratings and the parental ratings are needed to provide a more accurate description of the child's experience [23].…”

“…Medical interventions have been reported to be effective ways of preventing nausea [21,22], but, according to some other studies, no benefit has been found [23]. Gastric aspiration has been used for reducing posttonsillectomy nausea and vomiting [15] but no decrease in the incidence of vomiting after tonsillectomy was found [3].…”

The pediatric PRO-SELF©: Pain control program: An effective educational program for parents caring for children at home following tonsillectomy

“…In this article, we report on one approach that was used as part of two randomized controlled trials (Sutters et al., 2004, 2010) that resulted in increased dosing of scheduled analgesics in children following tonsillectomy. Details and main findings from these two intervention studies are published elsewhere (Sutters et al., 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010). The purpose of this article is 2‐fold.…”