The impact of medical clowns exposure over postoperative pain and anxiety in children and caregivers: An Israeli experience

Nitza Newman, Slava Kogan, Moshe Stavsky, Shay Pintov, Yotam Lior

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

While postoperative pain management was shown to reduce unwanted physiological and emotional outcomes, pediatric postoperative pain management remains suboptimal. Medical-clowns were shown to be beneficial in many medical contexts including reduction of stress, anxiety and pain. This study was set to assess the effectiveness of medical-clowns on pediatric postoperative pain reduction. Children age 4 or above, planned for elective hernia repair surgery were recruited. Children were randomly divided to a control or medical-clown escorted groups. Demographical and clinical data were collected using questionnaires and electronic sheets. Children escorted by clowns reported lower levels of pain upon admittance, discharge and 12-hours post-surgery. Statistically significant reduction of parental distress and significantly higher serum cortisol levels were observed in the clown-therapy group. Although small, our study supports the possibility that preoperative medical-clown therapy might be a cheap, safe and yet beneficial method for postoperative pain reduction.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)44-48
Number of pages5
JournalPediatric Reports
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2019

Keywords

  • Clown-doctors
  • Cortisol
  • Hernia
  • Pain reduction
  • Pediatric surgery

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pediatrics

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