Sedating affect
17-Oct-2020 10:25
Developmental disability is defined by these investigators as delay in one of the following: fine/gross motor, cognitive, speech/language, social/personal, and activities of daily living.
Pentobarbital and fentanyl were the two most common medications used with no difference in mean dosages between children classified as “normal” or “developmental disability”.
In this study, the most common diagnosis for the cause of developmental disability was autism (36%).
In addition, the authors included patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (20%) as a diagnosis for developmental disability.
Sedation and analgesia for the pediatric patient with developmental disabilities and neurologic disorder require a thorough understanding of potential adverse events, and the knowledge and skill to avoid potentially life-threatening complications from the administration of sedative and analgesic medications.
These findings seem to recapitulate the findings described in the PSRC studies: an increase in adverse events, most notably airway compromise, for children with developmental disabilities and those with neurologic disorders.Brain MRI has become an important diagnostic and management tool for these children and is being increasingly used in many pediatric centers [7].
