department: pros and cons

This is the last in a series of four papers on emergency analegesia in the paediatric population. It discusses the use of paediatric sedation in the accident and emergency department. There is currently increased interest in the safeprovision of sedation to children for minorsurgical procedures, endoscopy, and radio-logical procedures. There are changing percep-tions of what is acceptable in the restraint of chil-dren during painful procedures and increasing expectations of analgesia and amnesia from chil-dren, parents, nursing, and medical staff. The alternative to sedation is the use of general anaesthesia. There are increasing demands on the anaesthetic departments of most hospitals and the specialty is understaffed to meet the demands made upon it.1 These factors mean that the provi