Pain Management

The goal of Shriners Hospitals for Children^® is to manage, reduce or eliminate any pain that your child may be experiencing as a result of burns, injury or following surgery or other procedures. Our pain level assessment method makes it simple for your child to communicate and is based on the Faces of Pain Scale. Based on six faces ranging from a full smile indicating no hurt, to a full frown with tears meaning hurts worst, our pain management team works with your child to fully understand their specific pain and prescribe treatments that will make your child feel better.

At Shriners Hospitals for Children^® we work together to:

• Make your child comfortable.
• Develop an individual pain management plan for your child after they are discharged from the hospital.
• Teach techniques to minimize and manage any pain while your child is healing.

Depending on your child’s age, medical condition and the cause of the pain we may use one or several methods to make him or her more comfortable. These include:

• Medications like Tylenol
• Narcotic medications such as morphine
• IV-administered pain medication that your child can control with a button
• Local anesthesia to numb a small area of the body
• Epidural anesthesia to numb the body from the waist down, while keeping the child awake
• General anesthesia to help the child “sleep”

Your medical team will develop a specific plan for your child and will explain it fully before administering any medications or anesthesia.