Minimal Sedation Second Dose Strategy with Intranasal Midazolam in an Outpatient Pediatric Echocardiographic Setting

Background: Anxiety and movement in children during transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) can compromise study quality and reliability. Minimal sedation is often required. Intranasal midazolam (INM), used in various procedures, is an excellent sedative. Optimal INM dosing strategies for uncooperative children undergoing TTE are largely unknown, including second-dose INM strategies, introduced to maximize the potential for successful sedation and minimize risk. The purpose of this retrospective review was to evaluate the effectiveness of a second-dose INM minimal sedation strategy recently adopted at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Methods: The strategy incorporates a second dose of INM if needed (10-15 minutes after the first dose) to obtain the desired level of anxiolysis. The effectiveness of this strategy was assessed in 100 consecutive patients (age range, 1-59 months).

Results: There were no reported complications, minimal untoward side reactions, and no delays in discharge. Eighty patients attained satisfactory minimal sedation levels.

Conclusion: A second-dose INM strategy was effective in achieving satisfactory minimal sedation in children undergoing TTE. The results of this study also suggest that only a small proportion of patients would benefit from a one-dose INM strategy.