DEVELOPMENT OF PAIN MECHANISMS

Interest in the neural development of pain pathways and of the perception and treatment of pain in newborn infants has increased markedly in the last few years. The tremendous improvement in the survival of premature infants, particularly those weighing less than 1000 gm at birth, means that there are now a significant number of infants, many of whom require surgery, undergoing necessarily extensive traumatic procedures in intensive care units. At the same time it is becoming clear that the traditional belief of paediatricians and anaesthetists that newborn infants do not feel or remember pain and therefore need no anaesthesia or analgesia is rooted in a mixture of misconception and fear.1