The Effect of Pain Medication in Children With Acute Abdominal Pain and Its Implication Over the Surgeon's Decision

Unfortunately, the current standard of care obviates the use of pain medication in children with acute abdominal pain while waiting for the attending pediatric surgeon to perform their examination and determine if the patient requires operative intervention. This process can sometimes be protracted.

This practice occurs currently because of the concerns that analgesia may alter physical findings, interfere with the diagnosis, and delay definitive surgical intervention resulting in increased morbidity. This point of view has been challenged recently.

We designed this study taking into account the paramount importance of the pediatric surgeon's role in determining the need for operative intervention in the ultimate management of patient's presenting with acute abdominal pain and signs and symptoms of peritonitis.

Our primary objective is to demonstrate that the administration of intravenous morphine will alleviate pain in children presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) with abdominal pain and peritoneal signs, without changing the patient's physical exam and the subsequent surgeon's operative decision.

Secondary objectives include recording any adverse events of morphine and associated surgical complications, and identification of the ultimate diagnosis.

This is a prospective, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical that will be conducted in the ED at Children's Medical Center of Dallas. Children aged 1 to 18 years with acute abdominal pain of ≤ 3 days duration, a moderate to severe pain score, and the presence of peritoneal signs will be eligible. Patients will be randomized to receive either 0.1mg/kg of intravenous morphine (maximum 10 mg) or an equal volume of placebo (0.9% saline).

An ED physician will obtain clinical data, determine the pain score, write a presumptive diagnosis and place an order for the study medication. A surgical physician will also obtain clinical data and write his/her disposition. This evaluation will be repeated at 30-120 minutes after administration of the study medication by the ED and surgical physicians.

Each subject will be monitored for 2 weeks after enrollment for follow-up.