The Effect of Gender on the Consumption of Pain Medication in Infants Undergoing Craniosynostosis Repair or Untethering of Cord in ITU

Postoperative pain is a major concern in routine management of children admitted to pediatric intensive care treatment. There are significant negative physiological and psychological ramifications of postoperative pain such as impairment of cardiac function due to tachycardia, restlessness in an intubated patient requiring increase dosage of sedative and paralytic drugs and reduced patient cooperation in the healing process.

The main body of evidence dealing with gender differences in pain perception and treatment stems from studies in the adult and adolescent population as the gonadal hormones have a central role in the way one experiences pain The hypothesis of this study is that there is a difference in the perception of pain, the amount of analgesia used and the response to pain medication between male and female infants undergoing craniosynostosis repair or untethering of cord.