Outcomes of Procedural Sedation: What Are the Benchmarks?

Every day, around the world, thousands of children receive sedation for procedures performed outside the operating room (OR). Sedation for a wide range of elective and emergent procedures is performed by an array of providers, using a variety of drugs, in many settings outside the OR. Individual specialty societies and organizations have proposed guidelines and recommendations for the provision of procedural sedation; in addition, guidance and recommendations on how outcomes of sedation should be defined, documented, and reported have also been published. The intent of this chapter is to review the current, significant, and expanding literature on procedural sedation for children performed outside the OR, examine important quality measures of sedation, and begin to determine performance standards, acceptable adverse events rates, and outcomes that define best practice of sedation. We will aim to meticulously examine safety and effectiveness of sedation in the context of differing definitions, reporting methods and expectations of providers, patients, and their families.