Each year, hundreds of thousands of children go to the emergency room with broken bones. The painful procedure to set those bones before they’re put
Each year, hundreds of thousands of children go to the emergency room with broken bones. The painful procedure to set those bones before they’re put in a cast can be excruciating. Now emergency room physicians can set fractures with only a fraction of the pain.
There’s no question that broken bones are one of the more painful emergencies that we treat, say pediatric emergency specialists. According to specialists there’s a myth that children don’t experience as much pain as adults. Adults are much more likely, somewhere around two to one, to get pain medications for fracture pain. When medication is given to kids, it often comes in a needle and in children that are hospitalized, their greatest fear is a needle..Now, nitrous oxide may be a better option if delivered on a kid-size scale. It doesn’t require deep breaths like the adult delivery system, and the masks are sprayed with good-smelling scents. Most importantly, it relieves pain..
It reduces pain in mild to moderate situations when it’s used alone, it is also said to reduce anxiety and memory of the event..
Nitrous oxide can be used for more than the pain of broken bones in kids. For some less-severe injuries, it can be used alone. However, for broken bones and more painful injuries, nitrous oxide is used in addition to other pain medications to ease the anxiety and decrease the pain. When a child does need to have a shot, nitrous oxide can be given to reduce the pain and anxiety before the shot is administered. .
