Comparison of Behavioral and Cardiovascular Changes to Nociceptive Stimuli among Preterm and Term Neonates in a Tertiary Care Centre, Coimbatore

Abstract

Background: The various common nociceptive stimuli for the babies in the Neonatal intensive 
critical care are during intravenous catheterisation, blood sampling and vaccination. Pain 
contributes to immediate and late effects in them like hemodynamic fluctuations and behavioral 
changes. The aim of the study is to compare the behavioral and cardiovascular changes to pain 
between preterm and term neonates. 
Methods: This is a cross sectional study done in the Department of Paediatrics in the 
Coimbatore Medical College & Hospital ,Coimbatore for a period of February 2021 to January 
2022.The study participants who fulfilled the inclusion and the exclusion criteria were included 
in this study. The final sample size was 71.The participants were divided into 2 groups 
Preterm(36) and Term(35).Demographic details like name ,gestational age, sex ,day of life were 
taken. The pain response was assessed by NIPS score .Autonomic reactivity was assessed by 
heart rate and respiratory rate changes.The collected data was entered in the MS excel and 
statistics were done with SPSS 23.Categorical variables expressed in numbers and percentages 
and continuous variables  were expressed in terms of mean and standard deviation.P value <0.05 
is considered as significant.