Bringing your child to the emergency room? This is the innovative approach that relieves their pain

Most of the children who come to the emergency room due to a deep cut or broken bone are afraid that the medical treatment will hurt, which itself creates anxiety, both for the child and the parent. Hillel Yaffe's Pediatric Emergency Medicine Department uses an innovative approach designed to relieve pain and, by doing so, alleviates anxiety as well. Under ultrasound guidance, the doctor locates the sensory nerves for the painful area and injects anesthesia around them so that the child does not feel pain during the procedure. This method makes it possible to provide optimal medical care that is pain free, while reducing a child's objections and anxiety.

Dr. Yair Katzir administers a block under ultrasound guidance in the pediatric emergency room at Hillel Yaffe

Dr. Yair Katzir, a senior physician with Hillel Yaffe's Pediatric Emergency Medicine Department, who introduced the innovative method at the emergency room, said, “Every region of the body has sensory nerves. Using an ultrasound device, we locate the relevant nerve blocks for the site of the injury and inject anesthesia into the myelin sheath so that the child does not feel anything, and we can perform the required procedure without interruption and without the patient experiencing anxiety. When a child comes into the emergency room with a broken bone or deep cut, the common method is to use general sedation/anesthesia, sometimes in the operating room. This treatment method is safer as there are virtually no complications, no need for recovery as there is following sedation, and the fact that the procedure is performed in the emergency room makes the patient experience better. Children are usually afraid when they know they have to be sedated or receive anesthesia. We explain the process to them while we are anesthetizing the nerve, so they don’t feel pain, are able to overcome their fear and become complete partners in the healing process.”

Dr. Katzir further added that nerve blocks are most commonly used for fractures and stitching of deep cuts that cannot be treated with local anesthesia. This method is also suitable for treating pain over a prolonged period, for example, alleviating pain before surgery to remove the appendix or foreign bodies in the limbs.