INTRODUCTION: Intravenous catheter placement is one of the most common invasive procedures, which performs by nurses. The presence of pain during vein puncturing may cause a series of mental, psychological and corporal adverse effects on children. Therefore, prevention and relieving of this discomfort in children is so important. The main purpose of this study is to compare the effects of EMLA cream and acupressure on pain reduction of venipuncture in 6-12 years old children who were hospitalized in educational centers of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: The present study is a clinical trial which is carried out with patricianly of 120 children in educational medical centers of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences during 2014.The samples were randomly categorized into three groups of EMLA cream, acupressure and control groups. In EMLA group, the EMLA cream was applied prior to venipuncture, in acupressure group also acupressure intervention was performed by nurses and the control group received only routine care. The pain intensity of venipuncture in all groups were measured after venipuncture using a pain analog scale. The data were introduced to SPSS software, version 18, and analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Kruskal-Wallis, and the Mann-Whitney tests).

Result: according to the results, differences of pain intensity during venipuncture, among the groups were statistically significant, (P<0/0001).The mean and standard deviation of pain intensity, in EMLA cream group, acupressure group and control were (3/45 ± 1/69),(3/35 ± 1/8) and  (8/65 ± 1/8) respectively. The severity of pain in two groups of EMLA cream and acupressure comparing to control group were decreased significantly (P<0.0001). However, the pain intensity between the groups of acupressure and EMLA cream were not statistically significant (P =0/99).

Conclusion: according to the finding, the non-drug methods of pain relief in terms of cost and availability is preferred to medical treatment methods and Acupressure can be used as an alternative method for pain Reduction.