The Effect of Facilitated Tucking During Venipuncture on Pain and Physiological Parameters in Preterm Infants

Background: Infants who hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are routinely undergoing painful procedures which perhaps has negative impacts on their CNS. Facilitated Tucking is one of the methods of pain relief for these neonates. Aim: To examine the effect of Facilitated Tucking during Venipuncture on pain and physiological parameters in premature infants. Method: In this experimental study, 70 preterm infants born at average 32-36 weeks' gestational age (GA), who needed routine blood collection, were allocated to two intervention (35 neonates) and control (35 neonates) groups. during a. In experimental group a nurse held the infant in the side-lying, flexed fetal-type position during blood collection. The infant's pain, HR and Spo2 were measured two minutes before, during and three minutes after the blood collection and their maximum level was recorded. Facial behaviors of pain were recorded independently through video recording. The control group did not receive any intervention for pain relief. Results: The mean age of newborns were 34/45 ± 1/22 weeks. The results showed that the intervention group had less pain during blood collection than the control group (P = 0.017). But there was no significant difference between two groups in terms of pain score after blood collection. The mean changes in HR and SPo2 were significantly different between two groups (p = 0.001), i.e. were lower in the intervention group Conclusion: The Facilitated Tucking could cause significant differences in fetal heart rate and arterial blood saturation and intensity of pain copared with the control group, Then it could be used as a procedure to reduce pain during Venipuncture.