Chloral hydrate and/or hydroxyzine for sedation in pediatric EEG recording

To evaluate and compare the success of chloral hydrate (CH) and hydroxyzine on sedation and assess the changes of these drugs on sleep EEG recordings.

Three hundred and forty-one patients (mean age: 60.92±53.81months) that were uncooperative with the EEG setup or referred for sleep EEG were enrolled in the study. Patients, partially sleep-deprived the night before, were firstly tried to fall on sleep without any medication, the patients who could not sleep spontaneously were randomly divided in two groups of hydroxyzine and chloral hydrate.

In 147 (43%) of cases, CH was given for sedation. In 112 (32%) hydroxyzine and in 8% of cases CH and hydroxyzine were given. 17% of children had spontaneous sleep. The doses of drugs prescribed were as follows: hydroxyzine 1.43±0.74mg/kg CH 38±14.73mg/kg. The time to go on a sleep was 34.68±30.75min in hydroxyzine and 32.34±26.83min in CH group (p>0.05). Eighty-nine percent of cases who were sedated with CH and 89.6% of cases who sedated with hydroxyzine were able to sleep (p>0.05). The background rhythm was faster with CH compared to hydroxyzine (p<0.05). There were no association between the occurrence of fast background rhythm and the doses of CH.

The study described the clinical practice of sedation with CH and hydroxyzine on EEG recording. Data suggest that CH with low doses and hydroxyzine is equally effective for sleep induction, but the side effects of CH on the sleep EEG is much more prominent.