No Need to Wait: Emergency Sedation for Children

Approximately one out of every 100 children who visits an emergency department for care receives sedation for common procedures, such as setting fractures or treatment of complex cuts. Dr. Maala Bhatt, together with researchers from across Canada, wanted to know if there was an increased risk of adverse events if a child hadn’t fasted before sedation. In this CHEO Discovery Minute, Dr. Bhatt shares that there was no difference in the rate of adverse events in young patients when researchers compared those who hadn’t fasted before being sedated for a procedure and those who had met fasting guidelines.