A double-blind study of the analgesic efficacy of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate and oral morphine in pediatric patients undergoing burn dressing change and tubbing

Burn wound care is extremely painful. The pain leads to added anxiety and therefore a distressing treatment that can negatively impact healing. Pain and anxiety management with oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate was compared with this institution's standard procedural pain medication, morphine. With a double-blinded, reverse crossover, time-randomized, and placebo-controlled design, the efficacy of morphine and fentanyl citrate was assessed with patients undergoing two consecutive days of tubbing. Pain and anxiety was assessed before, during, and after the tubbing procedure using the Faces Pain Rating Scale (Whaley and Wong, 1987) and the Fear Thermometer (Silverman and Kurtines, 1996). Data were analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance. Pain and anxiety appeared better managed with fentanyl citrate. Generalization is limited by small sample size, yet findings warrant additional investigation.