Commentary Pain assessment in Sub-Saharan Africa

in Malawi) my clinical observations of practice led me to the conclusion that pain management and assessment were not being undertaken. Children were unprepared (emotionally and physically), even when pain could be anticipated and predicted hours earlier. For example, a child requiring non-emergency lumbar punctures or minor surgical procedures/dressings receives no advance preparation or analgesia. This worried me greatly but I realized there must be reasons for this omission from the pediatric care offered. In order to look at interventions to respond to this need, I first wanted to see what the problems were in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. I hope, in this commentary, to provide a succinc