Analgesia for Children with Acute Abdominal Pain in the Emergency Department

One of the most common complaints in the pediatric emergency department is acute abdominal pain and 15% of school aged children are brought to a physician with a chief complaint of abdominal pain [1]. Appendicitis is a common, serious pediatric abdominal emergency and is diagnosed in 7% of children during their lifetime [2,3]. In the past, recommendations were to suspend analgesia in children suspected of having surgical emergencies in order to avoid masking physical signs prior to surgical evaluation [4,5]. These recommendations had been recently challenged and current evidence does not support withholding analgesia in these children. This review discusses the effects of opioid analgesia administration on children with acute abdominal pain on the pain relief, and on the diagnostic accuracy of their illness.