Erratum: Re: Oral sucrose for procedural pain in sick hospitalized infants: A randomized-controlled trial (J. Paediatr. Child Health 2003; 39: 591-7) [3]

In the November 2003 issue we reported a randomized controlled trial, using a 25% sucrose solution administered before heel lancing in sick, hospitalized infants. The sucrose solution used in this study was made up by the pharmacy department at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, by diluting Syrup BP, which contains 66.7 g of sucrose/100 g. This solution was interpreted by the pharmacy department as containing 66.7 g of sucrose/100 mL. It was recently identified that this assumption was in fact incorrect, and that the Syrup BP actually contains 89 g of sucrose/100 mL, as each millilitre weighs 1.324 g.2 The formula made, therefore, had an actual sucrose concentration of 33.1% (w/v).

As the above study showed that the solution was effective and no evidence of adverse effects were observed, the Neonatal Unit at the Royal Children's Hospital will continue to use the 33% solution for procedural pain management in sick infants. This concentration of sucrose is within the range of 12–50% reported in other similar studies.3