Pediatric Sedation Candidacy: Who Are the Right Patients and How Do We Know?

The number of sedation programs that offer pediatric procedural sedation outside of the operating room has grown over the past decade. With this growth, sedation programs are continuously improving the safety and quality for patients undergoing natural airway sedation. The first and most important step to ensuring safe and successful sedation is identifying the right candidates. Patient selection is systematic, with a prescreening process that includes a review of medical history and mandates a focused physical examination to identify risks that would disqualify the patient from a sedated procedure by a non-anesthesia-trained practitioner. The main goal of prescreening is to identify any airway, respiratory, cardiovascular, or neurologic features that may create an unreasonable risk for the intended procedure. This article will cover key aspects of the screening process that helps determine candidacy for pediatric procedural sedation by non-anesthesia-trained practitioners and includes a discussion on special patient populations and high-risk medical conditions.