Pharmacological interventions for reducing pain related to immunization or intramuscular injection in children: A mixed treatment comparison network meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials

Abstract

Various interventions were observed to reduce pain following vaccination in children. This study is a network meta-analysis comparing pharmacological interventions. Electronic databases were searched for appropriate randomized controlled clinical trials comparing active pharmacological agents to reduce pain following vaccination or intramuscular injection in neonates, infants, or children. Pain score was the primary outcome measure. Random effects model was used for generating pooled estimates. A total of 23 studies were included in the network meta-analysis. Topical eutectic mixture of local anesthetics (EMLA) significantly reduced pain scores. Crying time was also observed to be lower with vapocoolant spray and 25% sucrose and glucose solutions. Quality of the evidence was observed to be either low or very low. Topical EMLA significantly reduce pain following intramuscular injections particularly vaccination. However, due to low grade quality of the evidence, more studies are obligatory.