Practical application of emotional sweating to evaluate procedural pain in full–term newborns

Emotional sweating is a physical reaction that occurs with pain and other acutely stressful situations. Very few studies have directly evaluated emotional sweating to monitor pain reception in full–term newborns. The aim of study was to examine whether emotional sweating could applicate for evaluating procedural pain by heel lance in full–term newborns. Eight full–term newborns participated on the fourth day after birth in this study. We examined whether the amount of sweat secretion changed during blood collection procedure. The sweating reaction was recorded continuously from the start of the blood collection until blood collection was finished, using the probe of a portable perspiration meter against the newborn’s palm. As a result, the amount of emotional sweat significantly increased in perspiration accompanied the heel lance, compared to the baseline before blood collection. These finding suggest that emotional sweating could be used as an objective index of procedural pain in full–term newborns.