Experiences that pediatric burn patients perceived as painful were studied Subjects included 44 children with a mean burn size of 35% total body surface area and a mean age of 12 1 years Each child identified seven painful experiences, ranked them from most to least painful and gave a "worst possible" pain imaginable Experiences could be physical or psychological, burn-related or not, and could include recent or past experiences Eighteen children listed their burn as the most painful Twenty-three children did not mention their burn Most painful experiences included accidents specific procedures, and psychological pain Eight children imagined the worst possible pain as being burned again Other children identified fears of mutiltation as the worst possible pain.