Paediatric sedation for imaging is safe and effective in a district general hospital.

Objective: To devise a safe and effective sedation protocol for imaging paediatric patients in a small district general hospital (DGH).

Methods: Chloral hydrate, alimemazine and learned best practice were used for imaging 105 children between January 2013 and May 2015. We retrospectively reviewed case notes for this time period to establish rates of successful sedation and adverse events.

Results: Scanning was successful in 100/105 (95%) children. No serious adverse events were reported. Non-serious adverse events occurred in eight cases. 12 patients were discharged more than 4 h after scanning owing to prolonged sedation.

Conclusion: This is a safe and effective protocol for delivering sedation for imaging in paediatric patients. We would encourage similar centres to adopt this protocol where resources for i.v. sedation and general anaesthesia are limited.

Advances In Knowledge: There are many different sedation protocols in the literature for imaging in paediatric patients, with varying levels of success and adverse event rates. We present here a protocol that offers a high efficacy and safe sedation for imaging in a DGH.