Pain assessment during eye examination for retinopathy of prematurity screening: Skin conductance versus PIPP-R.

AIM: To assess changes in skin conductance during retinopathy of prematurity screening and to study the correlation between the skin conductance and a validated pain scale.

METHODS

Prospective observational study. Fifty-three eye examinations were performed in 32 preterm infant candidates for retinopathy of prematurity screening. Outcome measures were changes in Premature Infant Pain Profile-Revised (PIPP-R) scale and number of skin conductance fluctuations.

RESULTS

There was a significant increase from baseline in the number of skin conductance fluctuations and PIPP-R during the procedure. The maximum value of number of skin conductance fluctuations was 0.64 ± 0.44 peaks/sec, and the maximum value of PIPP-R was 10.8 ± 3.3. A correlation between the skin conductance and PIPP-R was not found at any time during the eye examination. Repeated measures correlation analyses showed only a moderate positive correlation between PIPP-R and number of skin conductance fluctuation values.

CONCLUSION

There were significant changes in both PIPP-R and number of skin conductance fluctuations during retinopathy of prematurity screening, reaffirming that this procedure is painful and stressful. The number of skin conductance fluctuations and PIPP-R are not significantly correlated, which likely reflects that these parameters evaluate different but complementary aspects of neonatal pain responses.