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Little NIRVANA for Pediatric Pain and Anxiety

Augmented Reality for Managing Pediatric Anxiety and Pain During Disasters - A Randomized Pilot Feasibility Study

Status
Enrolling by invitation
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06795126
Enrollment
130
Registered
2025-01-27
Start date
2025-11-15
Completion date
2027-08-31
Last updated
2026-08-11

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Acute Pain, Emergency Medicine, IV Access, Pediatric ALL, Procedural Anxiety

Keywords

AR, Pain, Anxiety, Augmented Reality, Distraction

Brief summary

The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of using Little NIRVANA (augmented reality (AR)) for managing anxiety and pain for children 2-8 years old during hospital emergency peripheral intravenous (PIV) insertions. The investigators hypothesize that Little NIRVANA plus a numbing cream will reduce pain and anxiety for patients undergoing PIV placement in the emergency department (ED) when compared to the cream alone. It is anticipated that using the Little NIRVANA will not increase the ED length of stay, failed PIV placement attempts, or the need for additional intervention.

Detailed description

This is a two-group randomized clinical trial of 65 dyads of subjects and their parent and 65 proceduralists. Children will be randomly assigned to either the Little NIRVANA intervention group or a standard of care control group. Legal guardians of children in both groups will answer questions about their child's prior history of needle procedures, current pain/anxiety, medications taken prior to ED arrival, and video game experience. Children assigned to the intervention will play the game during the PIV placement, while children in the control group will receive the standard of care. The proceduralist performing the PIV placement and the parent will answer questions after the PIV placement about their perception of the child's pain and anxiety and questions about the Little NIRVANA experience for those children who were in the intervention group. This study has one visit that is completed during their ED stay.

Interventions

OTHERLittle NIRVANA

Augmented reality (AR) digital solution where children interact with the game using a magic wand

Sponsors

Nationwide Children's Hospital
Lead SponsorOTHER
KU Leuven
CollaboratorOTHER
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
CollaboratorFED

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
2 Years to 8 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* All patients undergoing PIV line placement (peripheral IV order placed while patient is in the ED); * Patients 2-8 years of age (inclusive)

Exclusion criteria

* Non-English speaking (Little NIRVANA is currently only available in English and Dutch); * those for whom utilizing AR is deemed not feasible by the attending ED physician (e.g., critical illness)

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Proxy reported painImmediately following the PIV line placement0-10 Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) (proxy reported by parent and proceduralist), 0(minimum)-10(maximum), with higher score indicating worse pain.
Proxy reported anxietyImmediately following the PIV line placement0-10 Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) (proxy reported by parent and proceduralist), 0(minimum )-10(maximum), with higher score indicating worse anxiety.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Proxy reported AR experienceImmediately following the PIV line placement0-10 Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) (proxy-reported - intervention arm only), 0(minimum )-10(maximum), with higher score meaning better outcome. Asked for fun, engagement, and satisfaction with the AR.

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Aug 12, 2026