Circumcised babies more likely to get anesthesia

By Amanda Beck

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Doctors are more likely to use anesthesia in newborn circumcisions than they were eight years ago, researchers reported on Thursday.

And a second study found that letting babies nurse during other painful procedures might help ease their discomfort.

At one time, doctors believed that infants were too young to experience the pain of circumcision or did not remember it, but more recent medical research has shown that babies are no different than adults in this regard, said Dr. Daniel Yawman, lead author of the anesthesia study.

A survey of U.S. medical residency programs found that 97 percent of the directors in family practice, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology taught the use of local or topical anesthetic in 2003.

Also, 84 percent of these programs always or at least frequently used anesthesia with their patients, the University of Rochester Medical Center researchers said in the current issue of Ambulatory Pediatrics.

"This shows that pain is actually a much bigger topic than it used to be in the medical world," said Yawman, adding that only 71 percent of residency programs taught the use of anesthesia in 1998.

About 1 million newborns are circumcised in U.S. hospitals every year, making it the country's most common operation.

Evidence shows that circumcised men are less likely to contract the AIDS virus and urinary tract infections.

The procedure, in which doctors or religious officials remove the penis foreskin, is also an ancient custom with religious significance for Jews and Muslims.

Leading professional organizations have recommended the use of anesthesia in circumcision since 1999. The two most effective forms of anesthesia involve injecting lidocaine near the base of the penis, Yawman said.

A second study published this week found that breast-feeding babies during painful procedures can also soothe them.

"We are looking for a natural, inexpensive, easily available approach to reduce pain," said Prakeshkumar Shah, a neonatologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

Shah and colleagues gathered data from 11 studies of more than 1,000 newborns. The discomfort of their first blood draw was countered with either breast-feeding and breast milk or sugar water and a pacifier.

The breast-fed babies experienced less pain than those who were swaddled or who received sterile water, Shah reported in the current issue of The Cochrane Library. Sugar water helped too, but some studies have suggested that newborns given sugar water suffer developmental difficulties later, Shah said.