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 language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 44-48 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Pediatric Reports |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 2019 |
Keywords
- Clown-doctors
- Cortisol
- Hernia
- Pain reduction
- Pediatric surgery
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pediatrics