The pain scale

pain therapy

The creation of a new scale comes from the need of a simple and reliable tool for acute pain measurement: there is no need to look at the baby, the nurse has just to devote to blood sampling and she only needs to listen. Previous studies demonstrated that the type of crying changes according to different pain levels. Therefore we investigated three characteristics of crying: the acuteness of the first weeping emitted when the painful stimulus begins, the constancy of the crying intensity during the operation and the possibility of the crying to become rhythmic, i.e. bursts of tears of 1 second, with a fraction of a second between bursts.

We created the ABC scale that assesses the pain score from 0 (no pain) to 6 (maximum of pain). We validated the scale with mathematical measurements both in term and preterm newborns.

Scala ABC

Parameters	Scores
Acuteness of crying	Absent	0
	Present	2
Rhythmicity	Absent	0
	Present	2
Constancy of the intensity	Absent	0
	Present	1
	Costant	2

 

Here's an example of a high-pitched crying	Here's an example of non-acute tears	Here's an example of rhythmic cry

 

Warning: the first cry is the one soon after the puncture and to be defined acute It must be similiar to the song of a bird.