Analgosedation in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures

Overview

The majority of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures frightens children and many of these procedures arepainful and associated with severe stress.Induction of sedation, analgesia or analgosedation during these short-term procedures is lege artis.The authors present a brief review of contemporary possibilities of analgosedation in children. They describealso their own experience with analgosedation in 113 children. They used a combination midazolam-ketamine, andpossibly supplemented by the alpha 2 agonist clonidine. These combinations can be administered by the i.m. ori.v. route. The above combinations can be also administered per rectum which is not painful and well tolerated bychildren. The onset of effect is rapid.By careful stepping up of the dosage of the above preparations different depths of analgosedation can beachieved. The onset of analgosedation and recovery are smooth. Basic vital functions are not substantiallyinfluenced. The mentioned procedures are safe and reliable analgosedation in children.

Key words:
analgosedation, children, midazolam, ketamine, clonidine