Postoperative analgesia in children: an update.

The International Association for the Study of Pain has defined pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage3. Several experts suggest that the neonate’s expression of pain does not fit within the strict definition of the International Association for Study of Pain because of the requirement for self-report. This lack of ability to report pain contributes to the failure to recognize and treat pain aggressively during infancy and early childhood3. Because neonates cannot verbalize their pain, they depend on others to recognize, assess, and manage their pain. Therefore, health care professionals can diagnose neonatal pain only by recognizing the neonate’s associated behavioral and physiological responses.