From the Journal of Children's Memorial Hospital
Safe Pediatric Sedation by Stephen Crotty, MD and Michael Tobin, MD
From The Child’s Doctor, Journal of Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago
Published Spring 2004
Administering sedatives to children to facilitate performing therapeutic or diagnostic procedures is a growing practice in hospital and outpatient settings. Procedures for which sedatives are given include diagnostic imaging studies, laceration repair, foreign body removal, spinal taps, and orthopaedic procedures. In most cases, regardless of the type of procedure, children are deeply sedated in order to provide adequate working conditions.
There is no such thing as “light sedation” or “twilight sleep” that will help a toddler stay immobile for a 2-hour magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, help a child get through an upper endoscopy and colonoscopy, or enable a complex fracture to be set.
For this reason, it is important for all practitioners to understand the complexities of the sedation process, including the sedation safety standards, the issues addressed during the pre-sedation evaluation, the risks and benefits of some commonly used sedatives and analgesics, and the importance of the discharge process.
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