Vaccination Related Pain: Randomized Controlled Trial, Comparison of Pain of Two Injection Techniques

Background: Immunisations is one of commonest cause of iatrogenic pain among healthy infants though several authorities have recommended that no aspiration is required before injecting into the anterolateral thigh, it is still a commonly followed procedure. Method: 202 healthy infants of either sex of age group 6 weeks to 6 months receiving routine intramuscular pentavalent vaccine were selected randomly by computer generated numbers and divided into two groups “standard” group and “pragmatic” group with 101 infants in each group. Two methods of vaccination conventional and pragmatic are used. In both cases pre vaccination and post vaccination pain was accessed by using FLACC scale and modified behavioural pain scale as well as cry time was noted. Results: The pre vaccination mean FLACC score in standard group is 2.07 (±1.17) while that in pragmatic group is 1.79 (±1.28). Post vaccination mean FLACC score in standard group is 8.5 (±0.82) while that in pragmatic group is 7.79 (±1.25). The pre vaccination mean MBPS in both standard & pragmatic group is 2.16 (±1.07). The post vaccination mean MBPS in standard group is 8.13 while that in pragmatic group is 8.16. Conclusions: Our study revealed that there was significant difference in perception of pain among the two groups. The Pragmatic group being a better technique for vaccination