Comparison of the Effects of Online Games, Cold Applications and Placebo in Reducing Pain in Children Undergoing Orthopedic and Traumatology Surgery

This study was designed as a randomized controlled trial to compare the effects of cold application, online gaming, and placebo on postoperative pain in children.

The sample size of the study was determined as 160 children, considering a 5% alpha error rate, 90% power, and the probability of loss of data during data collection, using G*Power program (3.1.9.2.) According to this result, the population of the study is planned to be formed with 160 child patients, aged between 7-12, who are hospitalized in the Palace Lower Floor Orthopedics Service of Istanbul Metin Sabancı Baltalimanı Bone Diseases Training and Research Hospital. The 160 children who make up the sample will be randomly assigned to "online game and cold application", "online game", "cold application", and "placebo" groups, previously sorted as group 1, group 2, group 3, and group 4 by the lottery method. In the study, the intervention of the relevant group will be applied to each child during pain control in each group.

A randomization list consisting of 40 blocks of four, based on age, gender, and the extremity region where the operation was performed, was created (https://www.randomizer.org/#randomize) to assign the children participating in the study to the groups randomly.

After the children were assigned to the intervention groups homogeneously and randomly, the study was started.

Before applying any pain-reducing interventions to all children in all the intervention groups, pain assessment was conducted using the visual analog scale (VAS) at 4 hours after surgery. The child's parent was also asked to evaluate the child's pain independently using the same scale. In this way, pre-intervention pain assessment was performed. Later, the pain-reducing intervention specific to the group in which the child was randomized was applied to the child.