Sedation versus general anaesthesia in paediatric patients undergoing chest CT

Abstract

Objective: CT of the chest in paediatric patients often requires sedation or general anaesthesia to minimize motion artefacts. Both sedation and general anaesthesia are associated with atelectasis which obscures the underlying pulmonary pathology. We conducted a prospective study to compare these two methods with respect to degree of motion artefacts and extent of atelectasis.

Material and methods: Nineteen patients undergoing 22 chest CT examinations were randomly selected for either sedation or general anaesthesia. The total area of atelectasis and the degree of motion artefacts were measured.

Results: The mean percentage of atelectasis was 6.67% for general anaesthesia and 0.01% for sedation (p = 0.01). There was no significant difference in the quality of the images between the sedation patients and the general anaesthesia patients.

Conclusion: Whenever the clinical condition permits it, sedation rather than general anaesthesia should be given to paediatric patients undergoing chest CT.