Pain management practices in children after surgery.

The purpose of this study was to describe the current practice of prescription and administration of pain medication postoperatively to infants and children in the National University Hospital in Iceland to determine whether these patients received therapeutic doses of pain medication. The results in this study support that pain management of infants and children is inadequate. In this retrospective chart review, 38% of the pain medication prescriptions were in therapeutic range. Forty-one percent were below, and 21% were above therapeutic range. Of the administered pain medication doses, 32% were in therapeutic range. Twenty-two percent were below, and 46% were above therapeutic range.