Premedication in Children: a Clinical Trial Comparing Oral Ketamine and Oral Clonidine With Respect to Sedation Level and Opioid Consumption in Pediatrics Undergoing Elective Lower Abdominal Day-case Surgery.

Surgery and anesthesia induce considerable emotional stress on parents and children. Children are particularly vulnerable to this surgical stress response since their limited energy reserves; larger brain mass, compared to body size; and glucose requirements. Thus, controlling and preventing perioperative stress responses is crucial in modern pediatric anesthesia. Many postoperative negative behavioral changes such as nightmares and separation anxiety. In addition to these behavioral manifestations, preoperative anxiety activates the human stress response. So, a multimodal approach consisting of sedative drugs, parental presence, play therapy, familiar environment and effective pain therapy is necessary to reduce preoperative anxiety. The benzodiazepine midazolam has traditionally been used to relieve preoperative stress and provide sedation in pediatric patients; however, in higher doses, it has an increased risk of respiratory depression.

Alternatively, premedication with clonidine, although less popular, has been shown to reliably produce preoperative sedation and anxiolysis in children; furthermore, it has analgesic properties, decreases volatile anesthetic and opioids requirements and improves perioperative hemodynamic stability.

Clonidine, a selective centrally acting partial a2-agonist, traditionally, it has been used as an antihypertensive agent since the late sixties. Its primary effect is a sympatholytic drug, and it reduces peripheral norepinephrine release by stimulation of the prejunctional inhibitory alpha-2 adrenoceptors. Further uses based on its sedative, anxiolytic and analgesic properties are being developed.

Ketamine is a sedative premedication that is commonly used in children. It is an N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist that produces sedation, immobilization, and analgesia without causing respiratory depression. It has been used in a variety of ways, most recently intranasal in children To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies compared between oral ketamine and oral clonidine as premedication in children undergoing elective lower abdominal day-case surgery.