Role of nebulised dexmedetomidine, midazolam or ketamine as premedication in preschool children undergoing general anaesthesia—A prospective, double-blind, randomised study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Preschool age children are psycho-biologically vulnerable to all surgical procedures. In this study, we investigated the effect of nebulised dexmedetomidine, midazolam and ketamine as sedative premedication for alleviating parental separation anxiety, facilitating face mask acceptance and reducing emergence agitation in paediatric patients undergoing general anaesthesia. METHODS: A prospective, randomised, double-blind study was done involving 96 children of age 3–7 years, randomly allocated into three equal groups and pre-medicated with either nebulised dexmedetomidine 2 mg/kg (GroupD), midazolam 0.2 mg/kg (GroupM) or ketamine 2 mg/kg (Group K). The scores of sedation scale, parental separation anxiety scale, mask acceptance scale and emergence agitation scale were recorded along with haemodynamic parameters. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), post hoc test and Kruskal–Wallis test were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: A statistically significant difference in sedation score was seen between the different study groups, χ(2)(2) = 8.561, P = 0.014 with mean rank sedation score of 56.50 for Group D, 38.92 for Group M and 43.84 for Group K. Parental separation anxiety scale score and Mask acceptance scale score also showed statistically significant difference between the different study groups, χ(2)(2) = 9.369, P = 0.009 and χ(2)(2) = 11.97, P = 0.003, respectively. CONCLUSION: Nebulisation with dexmedetomidine produced easy parental separation, more satisfactory sedation and face mask acceptance with less postoperative agitation than nebulisation with midazolam or ketamine.