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Ketamine: Procedural Pediatric Sedation In The Emergency Departmentment - $30.00
This issue includes 4 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM; 4 ACEP category 1 credits; and 4 AAP Prescribed credits.
Author
P.Jamil Madati, MD
Assistant Professor, University of California San Diego School Of Medicine, San Diego, CA
Peer Reviewers
Baruch Krauss, MD
Attending, Division of Emergency Medicine, Children’s Hospital Boston; Associate Professor of Pediatrics Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Jan Luhmann, MD
Instructor, Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, MO
Alfred Sacchetti, MD
Associate Director Emergency Services, Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Camden, NJ
Publication Date: January 2011; Volume 8, Number 1
Excerpt from the issue...
You are in the middle of a busy evening shift, and there are 2 children in the ED awaiting procedural sedation. One patient is waiting for fracture reduc-tion by the orthopedic surgeon. The other has a complex laceration of the vermilion border of the lip. The waiting room is starting to fill up with more patients checking in at triage, and you see there are several more patients in the waiting room that may require sedation for fracture reductions, lumbar punctures, and abscess incision and drainage. You realize that time is of the essence, and you approach the 2 patients and start to plan for the safest, most-efficient, effective sedation.
Patient 1 is a 6-year-old boy with a right forearm injury sustained when he fell off a trampoline and landed on his outstretched hand. No head injury is reported. The examination is notable for an angulated deformity of his right forearm which is confirmed on x-rays as a midshaft radius and ulnar fracture, but no findings are suggestive of intracranial or intraocular injuries. This child is in significant pain, and his parents are urging that some medication be given. He last ate 4 hours ago and last had liquid 2 hours ago. He has a history of mild intermittent asthma but with no recent exacerbations or hospitalizations. The patient has no prior surgeries, seda-tions, or known drug allergies.
- What sedative agent would be the most efficient and effective (from start to recovery) for this patient?
- What are the contraindications?
- Would giving narcotics for analgesia lead to complications during his later sedation?
Patient 2 is a 2-year-old girl with a complex (jagged and deep) laceration through the vermillion border of her lower lip, sustained when she tripped and fell, cutting her lip on the edge of a coffee table. There was no loss of consciousness and no dental trauma. She last ate and drank 2 hours ago. Past medical and surgical history is noncontributory. The family is requesting that a plastic surgeon perform the repair, and Plastic Surgery requests that procedural sedation be used during laceration repairs.
- Is it safe to perform procedural sedation on a patient who has been 2 hours NPO for both solids and liquids?
- Should atropine be used in conjunction with ketamine to limit excessive salivary secretions during the procedure?
- Should this patient be considered as having a head injury and would this be a contraindication to ketamine use in this patient?
This issue of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Practice takes a critical look at the recent literature on the safe and effective use of ketamine for pediatric procedural sedation in the ED.