Postoperative pain management in preverbal children: the prescription and administration of analgesics with and without caudal analgesia.

A retrospective chart review was conducted to examine the prescription and administration of analgesics with and without caudal analgesia to inpatient preverbal children within the first 48 hours after surgery. The 75 subjects were between birth and 24 months of age and had undergone various operative procedures. Seventy (93%) of these subjects were prescribed analgesics, but 8 of them had only acetaminophen prescribed. Of the 70 subjects who had a medication prescribed, 64 (91%) patients received analgesics. Morphine was the most frequently administered analgesic. The prescribed and administered mean dosages were less than the minimum recommended dosage for morphine. The mean prescribed and administered dosage for other analgesics exceeded the minimum recommended dosage. Preverbal children who had caudal analgesia during surgery were more likely to receive fewer dosages of analgesics and to receive lower dosages of narcotics even after 24 hours postoperatively than children who had not had caudal analgesia.