Parents' attitudes toward performance of lumbar puncture on their children

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Abstract

We studied the attitudes of 87 parents who had the choice to watch their children's single or multiple lumbar punctures (LPs). Anxiety scores were moderate, higher before LP than after, and were unaffected by the number or observation. Parents who observed the LP wished doing likewise in the future.

Section snippets

Methods

The study was conducted during a 6-month period in the Pediatric Emergency and Pediatric Oncology Departments at Yakutiye Research Hospital in Erzurum, Turkey. Group A consisted of parents of children who needed a LP for any cause, usually suspected intracranial infection, first febrile seizure, workup of metabolic disorder, or acute encephalopathy. Group B comprised parents of children who underwent more than one LP, usually for intrathecal therapy. Parents of critically ill children requiring

Results

A total of 87 parents were enrolled for this study. Of these, 49 (56.3 %) were the parents of the children who had an LP for the first time (group A), whereas 38 (43.3 %) were the parents of children with oncologic disorders undergoing more than one LP (group B). Twenty-nine (59.2%) parents in group A accompanied their child during the LP (group A1) and 20 (40.8 %) did not (group A2). In group B, 25 parents (65.8 %) were present during the LP (group B1) and 13 (34.2 %) were not (group B2). Mean

Discussion

Traditionally, the physicians in our clinic do not allow parents to be present when their children undergo an invasive procedure such as LP because many believe that the physician's performance is better and parents' anxiety is lower if parents are not in the same room. In this study, parents showed a moderate degree of anxiety both before and after the LP when compared with normal adult values, as in the study of Haimi-Cohen et al.3 In addition, anxiety levels diminished after the LP in all

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof Dr Omer Akbulut for help with statistical analysis and Associate Prof Dr Naci Ceviz for kind aid in interpretation of the results.

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