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Can children be sedated effectively with only one needle?

Quick facts

Principal investigator:
Dr Megan King

Children present to emergency departments on a daily basis where sedation is required in order to conduct painful or distressing medically necessary procedures. Ketamine has been widely accepted as the preferred medication in which to achieve this sedation, however ongoing debate revolves around the best method of administration. Historically, intravenous ketamine has been the preferred method and this requires a cannula to be inserted into the vein. This procedure can be difficult to achieve with just one cannulation attempt and often takes multiple efforts to achieve intravenous access. Restraint of the child is necessary, often for a prolonged period of time - this can be significantly distressing for both the child and parent and can have long term psychological impacts. Delivering ketamine via the intramuscular route is significantly easier and quicker to achieve as a first pass success and has the potential to be much less distressful for the child. The hypothesis is that ketamine via one needle only, as an injection into the muscle, can provide adequate sedation for children – this proposed research trial will investigate this. This study will also look at the adverse effects, length of stay in the emergency department and length of sedation of intramuscular ketamine, when compared to intravenous ketamine.

Grants Awarded

Emergency Medicine Foundation
$60,056



Last updated 19 Aug 2020