The Effect of Topical Tetracaine Gel%4 on Pain Reduction of DPT Vaccine in 18 Months Infants

pain is a multidimensional phenomenon that is defined as «an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage”. Infants and children are vaccinated before two years on several occasions. DPT injection begins from 2 months- old and continued to 4-6-years-old for 4 times in Iran. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pain reducing effect of topical Tetracaine in inter muscular DPT injection compared to placebo. in this study 40 infants by the age of 18 months were divided in two groups using random allocation، and two injections were performed for each group، using Tetracaine gel 4% and a placebo injection. The severity of injection was recorded using the FLACC pain scale by a pediatric registered nurse. Results showed that Tetracaine could not significantly decreased the pain severity of DPT vaccine IM injection in case group as compared with placebo group (p>0. 05). although findings of this study indicated that topical Tetracaine could not play an important role in decreasing of pain during DPT vaccine IM injection but it did lead to faster recovery time. The average pain intensity in the case group was less than placebo group (8. 5 vs. 9. 2). The time to pain relief and return to baseline in case group was much lower than the placebo group. However، more studies are needed to determine the effect of pain reduction strategies.