A Practical Guide to Sedation and Analgesia in Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

All critically ill children have the right to adequate relief of their pain Correctable physical and environmental factors causing discomfort should be addressed using non-pharmacologic interventions before the initiation of pharmacologic interventions. The choice of sedative-analgesic agent and its initial dose are selected on the basis of several factors such as cause of the distress, desire depth and duration of therapy, clinical condition, potential drug interactions and pharmacokinetic modifying variables. Analgosedation: prioritize the use of analgesia first and then sedation should be the norm while starting sedative-analgesic and reverse to be followed in the weaning process. The level of sedation should be regularly assessed and documented using a sedation assessment scale, wherever possible using a validated scoring system such as the COMFORT scale Once the primary cause of ICU admission is treated, the sedative requirement should fall. Attempt should be made to reduce the level of sedation which require an individualised approach based on clinical condition, drug used for sedation- analgesia, total dose and duration of therapy. During reduction or withdrawal of sedative-analgesic, children should be closely observed for development of withdrawal symptoms.