Related Experiment Videos

Factors Associated With Use of Procedural Sedation in Pediatric Facial Laceration Repair in the Emergency Department:

Isabella G Steidley1, David Mills2,3, Elizabeth Waltman4

  • 1University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, AZ.

Pediatric Emergency Care
|May 18, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Provider specialty significantly impacts procedural sedation use for pediatric facial lacerations. Plastic surgery specialists were more likely to use sedation than emergency medicine providers, indicating practice variation.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine
  • Surgical Procedures
  • Pain Management

Background:

  • Facial laceration repair in children often requires managing pain and anxiety.
  • Procedural sedation is a common tool to facilitate pediatric procedures.
  • Variations in sedation practices may exist based on provider and patient factors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify factors associated with procedural sedation utilization during pediatric facial laceration repair.
  • To analyze the influence of provider subspecialty on sedation use.
  • To explore patient and laceration characteristics impacting sedation decisions.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective cross-sectional study of pediatric patients (0-18 years) with facial lacerations repaired with sutures (2016-2020).
  • Primary outcome: procedural sedation use; Secondary outcome: anxiolysis use.
  • Multivariate and multinomial logistic regression analyzed factors including provider specialty, patient demographics, and laceration characteristics.

Main Results:

  • Procedural sedation was used in 7.6% of 4943 patient visits.
  • Lacerations repaired by plastic surgery were 25 times more likely to involve procedural sedation than those by emergency medicine.
  • Laceration length, complexity, and overnight presentation were also associated with increased sedation use.

Conclusions:

  • Provider specialty is the strongest predictor of procedural sedation use in pediatric facial laceration repair.
  • Significant practice variations exist, highlighting the need for standardized sedation decision-making.
  • Developing clinically driven approaches can optimize sedation use for pediatric facial lacerations.
Abstract

Keywords:
clinical practice variationfacial lacerationprocedural sedationsedation utilization

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