title: Analgesia and sedation practices for incarcerated inguinal hernias in children.
abstract: In this study, the use of medications for analgesia and/or sedation for incarcerated inguinal hernia reductions in the emergency department was analyzed. A retrospective chart review was conducted for all patients presenting to a pediatric emergency department with incarcerated inguinal hernia from 2002 to 2005. A total of 99 children presented with incarcerated hernias during the study period. The median age was 11 months. Forty-four percent of children received medication for the procedure, of them 75% received parenteral and 25% oral or intranasal medications. Forty-five percent of children who received medication went through at least 1 hernia reduction attempt initially without medications. More than half the children with incarcerated inguinal hernias did not receive any medication for pain and/or sedation prior to hernia reduction. Guidelines for medication use for children with incarcerated inguinal hernias need to be developed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Khalid
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Al-Ansari
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sulowski
authors.forename: Savithiri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ratnapalan
mesh_terms: D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D016292:Procedural Sedation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006552:Hernia, Inguinal / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome