Ethics of conducting the study "Oral 24% sucrose associated with nonnutritive sucking for pain control in healthy term newborns receiving venipuncture beyond the first week of life" [Letter]

• Main Authors: Harrison D, Bueno M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2019-06-01
• Series: Journal of Pain Research
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/ethics-of-conducting-the-study-oral-24-sucrose-associated-with-nonnutr-peer-reviewed-article-JPR

Denise Harrison,1 Mariana Bueno21The University of Ottawa and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Canada; 2The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, CanadaWe refer to the pilot study by De Bernardo et al,1 in which 66 healthy infants were randomized to 24% sucrose or 10% glucose during venipuncture. Findings were 24% sucrose statistically significantly reduced pain compared to 10% glucose. This is not surprising as the efficacy of sweet tasting solutions in reducing pain in newborn infants has been known since the early 2000s,2 and less concentrated solutions, including the 10% glucose used in this study had already been shown to be ineffective. Therefore, this trial, which studied an already known effectiveintervention compared to an already known ineffective intervention, does not comply with the principle of equipoise.2,3View the original paper by De Bernardo and colleagues