NCT02321657

RELAX Anaesthetics: the Effect of a Bespoke Relaxation App on Stress Levels in Children Undergoing Anaesthesia

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 100 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Royal College of Music · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 2 Years – 16 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

RELAX Anaesthetics is a randomised clinical trial assessing the effectiveness of using an iPad app with art, music and games to relax and distract children, reduce anaesthetic induction time and make drug cost savings prior to surgery.

Detailed description

The most distressing part of a parent's experience in hospital is watching a child undergo intravenous cannulation.1 This is commonly performed in the anaesthetic room prior to induction of anaesthesia. At Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Trust (CWFT) over 5000 children undergo operations every year. Traditional methods of distracting the child during have included blowing bubbles, storybooks, and a variety of toys and games. These methods are not always effective and may present an infection risk due to inability to clean between uses. The use of an android/iPad provides a platform for effectively distracting the child with a choice of games, video and music, with the advantage of being cleaned between uses. Users of this platform are required to select the application that is most appropriate for the age, sex, method of anaesthesia, and compliance level of the child. To assist with this, the investigators have developed an application system that will select a range of entertainment applications appropriate for each child based on these four variables and hopefully help to keep children calm before their operations.

Conditions

• Surgery

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	iPad app containing art, music and games	An iPad app that takes demographic information on a child and suggests suitable art, music and games for use by the anaesthetist and nurse to distract them during anaesthetics
OTHER	Toys, books and games	Games, books and toys used to distract

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-03-01
• Primary completion: 2015-06-01
• Completion: 2015-09-01
• First posted: 2014-12-22
• Last updated: 2015-10-27

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United Kingdom