Sedation for paediatric computerized tomography--a double-blind assessment of rectal midazolam

This double-blind study investigated the rectal administration of midazolam as an alternative to general anaesthesia for elective computerized tomography (CT) of the brain. Thirty children were randomly allocated to receive either midazolam 0.3 mg kg-1 (Group 1) or midazolam 0.6 mg kg-1 (Group 2) by the rectal route. Sedation was obtained in 13 children in Group 1 and 12 in Group 2 but this was only satisfactory for scanning in seven children in Group 1 and eight in Group 2. We concluded that although the technique produced sedation, it did not reliably produce satisfactory conditions for CT scanning.