Painful procedures in the NICU

The authors after a brief introduction on the development of the perception of pain in the fetus and newborn, focus attention on the problem of painful procedures that are performed in the neonatal intensive care units reported in the scientific literature. Then report the design of the double-blind study that is taking place from February 2012 at the NICU ARNAS Civic - Palermo using three different concentrations of sucrose as analgesia during venipuncture and heel puncture in term neonates.