Acetaminophen and Post Circumcision Pain Control

Overview

Infants do not routinely receive acetaminophen for pain control after circumcision. This study will determine if acetaminophen is effective at controlling infant pain after circumcision using nerve block and oral dextrose. Infants will undergo the routine circumcision procedure, and half will be randomly selected to receive half acetaminophen immediately at the end of the procedure. Afterwards, infant's vitals signs (heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation), the neonatal infant pain scale (NIPS), and salivary cortisol levels will be checked in regular intervals up to 4 hours. The NIPS is a validated pain scoring system based on the appearance of the infant. A reduction in NIPS for those infants who receive acetaminophen versus nothing will be the primary outcome to determine if the study is significant.

Male circumcision is a common surgical procedure performed in the newborn period. The American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Circumcision recently published an update on circumcision policy stating the benefits of male circumcision outweigh the risks. Given this update, the investigators anticipate a percentage of families who were previously undecided about circumcision will choose to have their newborn circumcised. A common concern for both parents and physicians is effective pain control. For intra-operative pain control, dorsal penile nerve block (DPNB) has been found to be the most effective when compared to EMLA (lidocaine-prilocaine) or placebo. Acetaminophen is a relatively safe, easy to administer analgesic. Prior studies have suggested that acetaminophen could be helpful in postoperative comfort. However, studies examining the effectiveness of acetaminophen for postoperative pain control in infants who received DPNB are lacking. In addition, prior studies have been incomplete in the assessment of neonatal pain.