Hypnosis for pediatric fracture reduction

Hypnosis can diminish pain and anxiety for many emergency patients during e xaminations and procedures. While hypnosis has been used for millennia and was demonstrated to be of use in clinical medicine more than a century ago, modern physicians have been reluctant to adopt this technique in clinical practice. This article describes four children with angulated forearm fract ures who had no possible access to other forms of analgesia during reductio n, and in whom hypnosis was used successfully. A simple method for hypnotic induction is described. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.