A descriptive cross-sectional study on the cumulative frequency of pediatric procedural sedation in 0- to 3-year-old children.

Background: Recurrent illnesses and poor adherence to medical procedures render infants and young children vulnerable to procedural sedation, while repeated or prolonged exposure to anesthetic medications and sedative drugs may potentially exert adverse effects on the developing brain.

Objective: To investigate the distribution of cumulative frequency and the use of general anesthetic drugs in pediatric procedural sedation for children aged 0 to 3 years.

Methods: The records of all children treated in the Sedation Clinic of the Children's Medical Center of our university in November 2021 were extracted as the sample. A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed, and the cumulative frequency of pediatric procedural sedation in 0- to 3-year-old children was investigated as the first endpoint.

Results: A total of 3439 independent children were included in this study, 2649 (77.0%), 471 (13.7%), 270 (7.9%) and 49 (1.4%) children with 1 to 3, 3 to 5, 5 to 10 and ≥10 rounds of the cumulative frequency of sedation, respectively, and 929 (27%) of those were identified general anesthetics using. There was no significant difference in the gender ratio of each cumulative frequency strata subgroup compared with that of the total sample.

Conclusions: The present study concluded that some 0- to 3-year-old children are at risk of large cumulative frequency of pediatric procedural sedation and high risk of general anesthetics exposure.