Correlation between skin conductance measurements and subjective pain scales in children after otolaryngological procedures

Spearman correlation between the number of skin conductance fluctuations per second and subjective ratings of perceived pain in females

Females (N=17)	WB 1 h	WB 2 h	VAS 1 h	VAS 2 h	FLACC 1 h	FLACC 2 h
PM 1 h	Rho=0.28P=0.263	-	Rho=0.32P=0.195	-	Rho=0.30P=0.235	-
PM 2 h	-	Rho=−0.23P=0.351	-	Rho=−0.09P=0.719	-	Rho=0.19P=0.453
PM (1 and 2 h)	Rho=−0.03P=0.875		Rho=0.07P=0.686		Rho=0.16P=0.348

Correlation between skin conductance fluctuations and self-reported pain score by gender

	Female (n = 17)	Male (n = 16)	p-value*
PM 1 h	0.07 (0.04–0.12)	0.10 (0.04–0.15)	0.406
PM 2 h	0.09 (0.06–0.18)	0.17 (0.08–0.24)	0.045
p-value**	0.156	0.020	x
WB 1 h	4 (0–4)	5 (0–8)	0.612
WB 2 h	2 (0–4)	2 (0–4)	0.628
p-value**	0.201	0.182	x
VAS 1 h	3 (1–5)	6.5 (1–9)	0.205
VAS 2 h	1 (1–5)	2.5 (1–5)	0.586
p-value**	0.450	0.052	x
FLACC 1 h	0 (0–1)	3 (0–5)	0.059
FLACC 2 h	0 (0–0)	0 (0–3)	0.048
p-value**	0.128	0.094	x

Rank correlation coefficients (Spearman's rho) between pain scales (in the first and second hours after surgery)

	WB	VAS	FLACC	PM
WB	X	0.886	0.433	0.000
VAS		X	0.497	−0.024
FLACC			X	0.098
PM				′

Spearman correlation between the number of skin conductance fluctuations per second and subjective ratings of perceived pain in males

Males (N=16)	WB 1 h	WB 2 h	VAS 1 h	VAS 2 h	FLACC 1 h	FLACC 2 h
PM 1 h	Rho=0.32P=0.216	-	Rho=−0.12P=0.633	-	Rho=0.29P=0.237	-
PM 2 h	-	Rho=−0.12P=0.650	-	Rho=−0.10P=0.711	-	Rho=−0.14P=0.577
PM (1 and 2 h)	Rho=−0.04P=0.808		Rho=−0.25P=0.170		Rho=−0.07P=0.682

Characteristics of the children in the study group

Variable	Statistics
Gender, N (%)
Female	17 (51.5%)
Male	16 (48.5%)
Age, years
Mean±SD	6.1±3.0
Me (Q1–Q3)	5 (4–8)
Min–Max	3–17
Otolaryngological procedures
Adenoidectomy	11 (33.3%)
Adenotonsillotomy	15 (45.5%)
Tonsillectomy	7 (21.2%)

Spearman correlation between the number of skin conductance fluctuations per second and subjective ratings of perceived pain in a group of 33 children

All (N=33)	WB 1 h	WB 2 h	VAS 1 h	VAS 2 h	FLACC 1 h	FLACC 2 h
PM 1 h	Rho=0.29P=0.102	-	Rho=0.18P=0.313	-	Rho=0.33P=0.064	-
PM 2 h	-	Rho=−0.13P=0.476	-	Rho=−0.07P=0.712	-	Rho=0.08P=0.668
PM (1 and 2 h)	Rho=0.00P=0.999		Rho=−0.02P=0.846		Rho=0.10P=0.429