Pediatric Pain Service
Members of the pediatric anesthesia team work with children from birth to adolescence at the IWK Health Centre to help ease their pain. As part of a larger interdisciplinary team, members provide acute and chronic pain consultation and treatment/management options to children and youth, and their families.
The average number of children and youth referred for acute pain treatment and management stays relatively constant, at just over 100 annually. Annual referrals for chronic pain consultation and management, however, are on the rise. In the last few years, the number has grown by about 30 each year, now reaching well over 200 annual referrals.
In addition to the hundreds of face-to-face consultations with children and youth and their families each year, members of the pediatric pain team provide telephone support. The pain management anesthesiologist on-call and clinical nurse specialist act as an easily available resource for children and youth, helping them to cope with, and to manage, their chronic pain.
Only three other centres in Canada (Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal) offer a comprehensive pediatric pain service. Members of the pediatric pain team often receive requests for consultation and clinical advice from hospitals and health centres across Canada and the United States.
Advances in treating and managing pediatric pain relate directly to a growing commitment to research locally, nationally and internationally. Many faculty members are at the forefront of that research. To learn more, visit the Centre for Pediatric Pain Research.
For more information, contact
Dr. Sharon Litz
Chief of Anesthesia - Pediatrics
rosalie.knowles@iwk.nshealth.ca
Phone: 902.470.8251
