Pain & Anaesthesia

Do you, or someone you care for, have experienced pain after surgery? Your input is needed on a Cochrane Systematic Review that aims to investigate the pain-reducing effect of paracetamol in children (those younger than 18 years old)

Skills / interests: Consumer (public, patient, carer) input

Methodological skills / interests: Patient reported outcomes

Acute postsurgical pain is a common issue in patients undergoing surgery and is mostly the result of injury to tissues. This type of pain should be managed to prevent persistent pain after surgery and its harmful outcomes. Also, postoperative pain in children is very common: 40.5% to 78% of children have reported moderate to severe acute pain after surgery.

This review, which is coordinated by Cochrane Austria and Cochrane Sweden, will assess the efficacy and safety of paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) for the management of acute pain after surgery in children (below 18 years of age) compared with placebo, other active comparators, different routes of administration (for example oral, rectal, or intravenous), or strategies (for example as needed or as scheduled).

Cochrane considers a consumer to be a person with experience of the condition, either as a patient or as a carer/family member of a patient. For consumer peer review, we will ask you to review the outcomes of this study and provide your feedback to ensure the outcomes are relevant so that they will be helpful to patients and their carers/families with healthcare decision-making.

While you are welcome to provide feedback on any aspect of the review, you can focus your attention on the outcomes that are going to be investigated in this study (in this case, those that are most important to patients with pain after surgery). Our aim is for this to be a manageable task, that does not overburden consumer reviewers.

Many thanks in advance for helping us with this study! We look forward to your involvement with this task!

Ideal applicant

You are 18 years of age or younger with experience of pain after surgery, or you have cared for someone with a similar age and condition. You are part of the Cochrane Consumer Network.

This task is no longer open for applications.