Analgesic administration in children and adults following open heart surgery.

In this study we investigated the administration of analgesics given to patients after open heart surgery (n = 100). The results show that children, especially infants, and elderly patients were given significantly fewer doses of analgesics during the five days after surgery than patients aged greater than 16-70 years. The pattern of pain relief also differed between children and adults, a peak in the number of doses of analgesics occurring on the first day after surgery among children and infants and on the second to third day among adults who continued to get higher numbers of doses than the children up to the fifth day.