Sedation analgesia in pediatric intensive care

Provision of optimum comfort control to a critically ill child, in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) requires a great degree of skill and planning and should be a prime concern for all practising paediatricians. Failure to provide adequate sedation and analgesia to control the stress response has been seen to be associated with increased complications and mortality. Sedation/analgesia in PICU is required both for, short term procedure and as an adjunct to pediatric intensive care. One has to identify the requirement whether sedation, analgesia or both. The ideal approach should be a sedative/hypnotic for sedation, an anxiolytic for anxiety, and an analgesic for pain. Threfore, it is essential, to provide the right drug for the problem at the right time in the right dosage. The drugs commonly used for sedation analgesia in PICU and their side effects have been described here.