Honey and children’s tonsils could hold key to easing post-surgery pain for thousands
When three-year-old Onyx had his tonsils removed during routine surgery, his mother Kaylah Sadler never imagined his recovery would be so painful.
“It was rough, very painful for him, and that was quite hard to see,” Ms Sadler said.
“His whole personality changed, he was just not himself — tired, sore and clingy.”
About 40,000 Australian children undergo tonsillectomy surgery every year and the pain they experience during recovery is severe and extremely common.
Patients like Onyx are commonly prescribed pain medication such as paracetamol, anti-inflammatories and even the opiate-based painkiller oxycodone to manage the symptoms.
But a new clinical trial being led by the Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) is studying the effectiveness of West Australian honey as a natural pain relief option for children who have undergone the procedure.
“I was apprehensive to be part of the trial at first but when I found out it was honey, I was all for it,” Ms Sadler said.
Key points:
- A new clinical trial is exploring the effectiveness of honey for pain relief for children recovering from tonsillectomy surgery
- Researchers behind the trial hope to gather data from 400 participants across several Perth hospitals
- The WA honey industry says the trial is an opportunity to prove long-held beliefs about the medicinal qualities of honey
“I’m from New Zealand and a lot of the old ancestors used a lot of honey so I know there’s good healing properties.”
Honey as medicine
The PCH study is being conducted in partnership with the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Telethon Kids Institute, under the direction of consultant anaesthetist Britta Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg.
The trial will gather data from 400 patients receiving standard pain treatment after surgery, with half of the young patients also consuming either Marri Honey or West Australian Manuka honey at least six times a day.
The rest of the patients will receive artificial honey as a placebo or no honey at all.
“The idea is to improve their pain control by giving them a non-medical product,” Professor Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg said.
“Honey has been used for hundreds of years, even the Egyptians used it as a medicinal product.
“We know it has antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties … we have the most amazing honey in WA that is exported all around the world … so that’s why we chose these two honeys.”
Hundreds of tonsils needed
Professor Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg said the trial has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic after the State Government suspended non-essential elective surgeries earlier this year.
It is hoped the study will be concluded by early 2021, despite the uncertainty surrounding the global health crisis.
“We currently have around 115 patients at the moment and we need 400 in total,” she said.
“So we need more children to take a spoon of honey after surgery.
Professor Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg said it was unlikely that honey could ever replace conventional pain medications.
“You’ll need a combination of both, it’s important not to just go the natural way, that would definitely not be sufficient,” she said.
“These children have a significant amount of pain and have had major surgery so we’ll always need basic analgesia.