Topical anaesthesia for needle-related procedural pain in newborn infants (Protocol)

This is the protocol for a review. The objectives for the review are as follows: compare the topical anaesthetics amethocaine (Ametop) and EMLA in terms of anaesthetic efficacy and safety in newborn term or preterm infants requiring an invasive procedure involving puncture of skin and other tissues with a needle. We will compare the effects of each topical anaesthetic in the following subgroups of patients: gestational age at birth (term infants 37 weeks' gestation and above); preterm infants (29 to 36 weeks' gestation); very preterm infants (< 29 weeks' gestation); type of infants (e.g. healthy newborn infants (e.g. those in the normal newborn nursery vs. sick infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)).