Feb 25, 2008 8:21 am US/Central
Laughing Gas Makes Procedures Easier For Some Kids
ST. PAUL (WCCO) ―
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Sidney, 8, gets nitrous oxide to help her through a procedure at Children's Hospital in St. Paul.
CBS
The Minnesota Hospital Association is praising Children's Hospitals and Clinics for making life less painful and less scary for its young patients.
Children's won the Innovation of the Year award for giving children nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to help them relax during procedures.
Eight-year-old Sidney has been missing a lot of school because of persistent infections.
"A lot of bladder and kidney infections," said Sidney's mother, Missy Kistler. "She's had way too many this year. Four of them already."
To find out why, doctors at Children's want to look inside her bladder for clues. To do that, nurses need to insert a very uncomfortable catheter.
To help Sidney be more comfortable, medical professionals are giving her nitrous oxide. The nitrous is a big relief to Kistler.
"No mother wants to see her child in pain, so the easier the better," she said.
Nitrous oxide has been around for 150 years. Dentists were the first ones to put it into use for patient care and it was a trip to the dentist's office that inspired Children's to give it a try.
"I was sitting in my dentist's office, waiting to have my teeth cleaned," said pediatric intensive care physician Judy Zier.
Zier struck up a conversation with her hygienist about how well the nitrous oxide works for young patients.
"When you turn it on, you get the effects right away," Zier said. "Within 30 seconds to three minutes, the kids are feeling the effects. And it's not a deep sedative. Kids are still awake but they're just more relaxed."
Children's is now using it for 20 different procedures, including inserting IVs, stitching up cuts, CT scans and administering chemotherapy.
"I wish we could have found it many, many years ago," said radiology nurse Mary Kay Farrell. "I often wonder why we didn't think of it."
Farrell first saw paramedics using nitrous out on the field.
"And what I saw them using it for mostly was orthopedic injuries or trauma injuries to kids out in the field and the kids would calm down," Farrell said.
Not only does Children's now have nitrous oxide piped through its medical gas-supply lines, portable tanks and regulators can be wheeled to any department where it's needed.
Unlike deep sedatives which can knock a child out for hours and be trickier to time, children on nitrous are back to normal in 5 to 10 minutes.
They can also take commands, to help those treating them.
Conor, 11, is battling leukemia. That means frequent spinal taps to monitor his cancer and to inject some of his chemotherapy drugs. His mother said since the nitrous technique, Conor gets less sick and it's been a marvelous comfort to both of them.
While nitrous oxide is widely used for children in Europe, Zier said Americans have been a little slower to embrace it.
"I think medical people don't look at it as potent enough, but if you target it to the right procedures and you have a program where the nurses work with the patients and provide that extra distraction, it's just a very powerful tool," Zier said.
Zier and her staff have hosted a nitrous conference, teaching medical staff from other states. Zier and her staff first learned how to use nitrous oxide by taking classes at a dental school to get certified to use it.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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