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The impact of medical clowns exposure over postoperative pain and anxiety in children and caregivers: An Israeli experience

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 t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Newman, Nitza, Kogan, Slava, Stavsky, Moshe, Pintov, Shay, Lior, Yotam
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PAGEPress Scientific Publications, Pavia, Italy 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6769359/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31579203
http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/pr.2019.8165
Descripción
Sumario: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 medicalclown 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.