Effect of gentle manual pressure on neonatal pain during heel prick: A randomised crossover trial

This is a randomised, open-labelled, crossover trial. The data collected came from healthy, term neonates with physiological jaundice in a neonatal unit of an acute public hospital in Hong Kong. Nine babies received 10 seconds of gentle manual pressure over the needle stick site immediately prior to the stick on the first day of the data collection. They received no manual pressure before the heel stick on the second day of the data collection. Eight babies received the intervention in the reverse order. The researcher measured the babies' reactive responses to pain with the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS) at scheduled time slots. No adverse reaction caused by the intervention was observed. The pain score during the heel prick was significantly lower with the prior manual pressure than with the heel prick that was performed without manual pressure (p=0.01).