Intranasal Dexmedetomidine as a Sedative for Pediatric Procedural Sedation

This study seeks to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intranasal (IN) dexmedetomidine as a sedative medication for non-invasive procedural sedation.

Subjects 6 months to 18 years of age undergoing non-invasive elective procedures were included. Dexmedetomidine (3 mcg/kg) was administered IN 40 minutes before the scheduled procedure time. The IN dexmedetomidine cohort was matched and compared to a cohort of 690 subjects who underwent sedation for similar procedures without the use of dexmedetomidine to evaluate for observed events/interventions and procedural times.

One hundred (92%) of the 109 included subjects were successfully sedated with IN dexmedetomidine. There were no significant differences in the rate of observed events/interventions in comparison to the non-dexmedetomidine cohort. However, the IN dexmedetomidine group had a longer postprocedure sleep time when compared to the non-dexmedetomidine cohort (p < 0.001), which had a significant effect on recovery time (p = 0.024). Also, the dexmedetomidine cohort had longer procedure time and total admit time (p < 0.001 and p = 0.037, respectively).

IN dexmedetomidine may be used for non-invasive pediatric procedural sedation. Subjects receiving IN dexmedetomidine had a similar rate of observed events/interventions as the subjects receiving non-dexmedetomidine sedation, with the exception of sleeping time. Also, patients sedated with IN dexmedetomidine had longer time to discharge, procedure time, and total admit time in comparison to other forms of sedation.