All 4 faces pain scales were found to be adequately supported by psychometric data .
When given a choice between faces scales , children preferred the WBFPRS .
Confounding of pain intensity with affect caused by use of smiling and crying anchor faces is a disadvantage of the WBFPRS .
: For clinical use , we found no grounds to switch from 1 faces scale to another when 1 of the scales is in use .
CONTEXT : Numerous faces scales have been developed for the measurement of  pain intensity in children .
It remains unclear whether any one of the faces scales is better for a particular purpose with regard to validity , reliability , feasibility , and preference .
OBJECTIVES : To summarize and systematic ally review faces pain scales most commonly used to obtain self-report of pain intensity in children for evaluation of reliability and validity and to compare the scales for preference and utility .
Topical anesthetics for intravenous insertion in children: a randomized equivalency study.
OBJECTIVES Children view needle sticks as the worst source of pain and fear in the hospital setting . In an effort to minimize the pain of needle sticks , the use of eutectic mixture of lidocaine and prilocaine ( EMLA ) has become st and ard practice in many children 's hospitals . Unfortunately , EMLA requires at least 60 minutes to be fully effective and reportedly may cause vasoconstriction , leading to difficult vein cannulation . A newly available local anesthetic ( ELA-Max ) may require less time and cause less vasoconstriction . The purpose of this r and omized crossover study was to investigate the anesthetic equivalence of EMLA and ELA-Max . METHODS Thirty well children ( 14 girls and 16 boys ) who were between the ages of 7 and 13 years volunteered to have EMLA  applied to the dorsal aspect of 1 h and for 60 minutes and ELA-Max applied to the other h and for 30 minutes . Right and left h and s were r and omized to treatment type and order of intravenous ( IV ) insertion . Clinical Research Center nurses , blind to the anesthetic r and omization , attempted to insert a 22-gauge Teflon IV catheter into a vein in each h and . The children rated pain during IV insertion on the Oucher scale , and the nurse rated the difficulty of the insertion . RESULTS There was no significant difference in pain ratings for h and s that were treated with EMLA ( mean : 20.5 ) or with ELA-Max ( mean : 24 ) , and there was no difference for the difficulty of vein cannulation .  Children 's preprocedure state anxiety was positively associated with pain ratings . CONCLUSIONS ELA-Max , applied for 30 minutes before IV cannulation , has an anesthetic effectiveness similar to EMLA applied for 60 minutes . Some children rated IV insertion pain fairly high for both h and s ( eg , 60 on a 0- to 100-point scale ) despite anesthetic treatment . Preprocedural anxiety may affect the perception and /or rating of pain . There were no differences between h and s that were treated with EMLA or with ELA-Max for success of IV insertion
All 4 faces pain scales were found to be adequately supported by psychometric data .
When given a choice between faces scales , children preferred the WBFPRS .
Confounding of pain intensity with affect caused by use of smiling and crying anchor faces is a disadvantage of the WBFPRS .
: For clinical use , we found no grounds to switch from 1 faces scale to another when 1 of the scales is in use .
CONTEXT : Numerous faces scales have been developed for the measurement of  pain intensity in children .
It remains unclear whether any one of the faces scales is better for a particular purpose with regard to validity , reliability , feasibility , and preference .
OBJECTIVES : To summarize and systematic ally review faces pain scales most commonly used to obtain self-report of pain intensity in children for evaluation of reliability and validity and to compare the scales for preference and utility .