Outcomes
hypoxemia, postoperative pain
ADVERSE EVENTS, SECONDARY, BLIND
Outcome assessment was performed by researchers who were kept blind to the patient’s group assignments. The primary outcome was whether oxycodone could provide adequate postoperative pain relief after surgery in pediatric patients. The definition of adequate postoperative pain relief includes (1) the FLACC score< 4 in the PACU; (2) patients do not need alternatively rescue analgesia. Ten minutes after the extubation in the PACU, postoperative pain in PACU was firstly evaluated by research personnel unaware of the allocation of the patient according to the FLACC scale; the FLACC evaluation was repeated every 10 min until discharge from PACU. A bolus dose of oxycodone or tramadol is given to the patient immediately if the score ≥ 4 according to patient’s allocation. The procedures could be repeated after 10 min until the score ≤ 3. If postoperative pain relief is not satisfied after three continuous bolus doses, alternative rescue analgesia is administrated to the patient.The secondary outcomes included No. of boluses administered and bolus-administered amount of opioid in PACU (equal to morphine) in PACU and in the wards, time spent from PACU discharge to the first bolus dose, bolus analgesia rate in the wards, FAS scores in the wards, parents’ satisfaction with the PCIA. We also recorded and analyzed the consciousness recovery time, extubation time, the length of staying PACU, Ramsay scores, and adverse events, especially hypoxemia.