The Acute pain service (APS) provides a multidisciplinary approach for the prevention and treatment of acute pain in children. We have a goal of improving patient comfort and satisfaction within the hospital setting.
Our service provides pain management to hospitalized children after major surgery and trauma as well as patients experiencing pain related to medical conditions (such as sickle cell anemia and mucositis from chemotherapy, among others). In addition, our service offers strategies for weaning of pain medications and difficult sedation. We use a number of common treatment options in our interventions, including patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), epidural analgesia, continuous peripheral nerve blocks, as well as continuous and intermittent intravenous administration of various opioids.
Our team also works to develop strategies to address pediatric pain in a broader perspective across the hospital. We develop and standardized documentation, protocols and procedures and play an important role in educating nursing and medical staff, along with patients and families about pain management methods. Our clinicians also ensure that innovative and new methods of treatment are quickly made available to our patients.
Our team is composed of 6 anesthesiologists with a special interest in acute pain, an advanced practice nurse, a nurse clinician, a pharmacist, and respiratory therapists. We work together to ensure that each patient’s pain is addressed and managed using the latest methods and evidence-based practices. All of our pediatric anesthesiologists work together to ensure 24/7 service coverage within the hospital.
