INTRODUCTION. Pain has been described as an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Based on findings in my research “Neonatal Pain” in 2018, it was revealed, that neonates experience pain. Sucrose as a perspective of further study was conducted as a non-pharmacological intervention for procedural pain relief in neonates.

AIM. To evaluate the pain-relief effect of sucrose in response to venipunctures in newborns.

METHODS. The research involves 11 neonates (6 males and 5 females), who got 2 ml of 30% solution of oral sucrose before the venipuncture. Each of the neonates were assessed by the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS) before and during the venipuncture, and their oxygen saturation (SpO₂) and heart rate (HR) were recorded.

The NIPS scale is composed of 6 indicators: facial expression, cry, breathing patterns, arms and legs movement and state of arousal. Each behavioral indicator is scored with 0 or 1 except “cry” which has 3 possible descriptors. The total pain scores range from 0-7.

With this, the assessment of pain with and without sucrose administration was determined.

RESULTS. During the observation of neonates, the average score according to NIPS after sucrose administration decreased in 2.7 points comparing with infants, who didn’t receive sucrose (average score without sucrose using was 3.7 points and with sucrose - 1.0 point), p<0.05. The HR of infants with sucrose administration increased during procedure in 14.36 beats/min, that was lower comparing with newborns who didn’t have sucrose (22.6 beats/min), p<0.05. The average SpO2 decreased in 2.2% in case of sucrose using vs 8.1% - without sucrose, p<0.05.

CONCLUSION. Administration of sucrose revealed a significant decrease in pain perception in the neonates. Sucrose has been examined for its calming effects in crying newborns and its pain- relieving effects for invasive procedures in full-term newborns.