Assessment of the practice of pediatrics procedural sedation and analgesia for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scan at a teaching hospital, Ethiopia, 2020: A clinical audit.

BACKGROUND

The main goals of paediatric sedation/general anesthesia vary according to the specific imaging procedure, but generally includes anxiety relief, pain control and control of excessive movement. The quality of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) depends largely on immobility of the patient during the procedure, which is often difficult to achieve without sedation in children. Sedation is the depression of the central nervous system and reflexes by the administration of drugs. Brain imaging is routinely used to identify stroke, hemorrhage, and structural abnormalities. All patients undergoing procedural sedation and those receiving general anesthesia should be evaluated equally.

AIM: The study aimed to perform a clinical audit of sedation and analgesia practices for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography compared against the guidelines/standards to determine if practice meets the standards and identify areas of non-compliance at a teaching Referral Hospital in Ethiopia.

METHODS

This clinical audit was conducted from January 1 to May 30/2020 for 5 months at a teaching Referral Hospital in Ethiopia. All children below the age of 6 years underwent MRI and CT imaging procedures under sedation during a study period were included. Data were collected through direct observation using checklists of standards by a trained data collector. Descriptive statistics were presented with tables, graphs of sums and percentages of items using SPSS version 20.

RESULTS

A total of 40 children underwent MRI and CT imaging were observed at the Hospital imaging sites. Among the 20 standards, 6 of them had 100% compliance rate, 3 of the standards had 0% complaince rate and 11 of the standards had the compliance rate of between 0 and 100%.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: In general, even though the practice guidelines of procedural sedation for MRI and CT recommend to practice procedures based on the standards, this study showed there were a number of standards that had <100% compliance rate. Therefore, it is recommended that staff should adopt standards or locally prepared protocols for their day-to-day practice.