The association of preprocedural anxiety and the success of procedural sedation in children

Purpose To investigate the association between a childʹs preprocedural state anxiety and the success of sedation. Methods A consecutive sample of children aged 2 through17 years requiring sedation for a procedure was enrolled. Pain, preprocedural anxiety (range, 0-9), and success of sedation (10 = most successful) were measured. Results Fifty-nine patients were enrolled. The median age was 7 years. The median anxiety score was 1.0 (interquartile ratio, 0-3). Pain and anxiety were weakly correlated (r = .21, P > .10). The mean sedation score was 7.8 (±2.2). Preprocedural anxiety and successful sedation were inversely correlated (r = −0.31, P = .002). Sedation was successful in 81% of children with anxiety scores below the median and 52% with anxiety scores above the median (P = .02). Children with low anxiety were 3.8 times more likely to be successfully sedated (95% confidence interval, 1.19-12.14). Conclusion Our data suggest that preprocedural state anxiety is associated with the success of sedation in children.