Your next patient is a 5-year-old boy undergoing tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. You decide to administer a loading dose of 30 mg/kg of oral acetaminophen. According to a recent trial, which of the following outcomes is MOST likely in this patient compared with a patient who receives a loading dose of 15 mg/kg of intravenous (I.V.) acetaminophen?
Among pediatric patients, tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures performed in the United States. Perioperative pain can be substantial. With increasing appreciation of the untoward adverse effects of opioids, the use of a multimodal pain management strategy incorporating acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and intraoperative local anesthetic infiltration of the tonsillar bed has become popular.
In 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved I.V. acetaminophen for the treatment of mild to moderate pain in patients aged 2 years and older. Previous research has found no difference between I.V. and oral acetaminophen...
