Midazolam and amnesia in pediatric premedication.

One hundred and twenty-eight children aged three to ten years, were studied to determine the effect of premedication on amnesia for the preanesthetic period. Four comparable groups were used: A control group, no premedication; oral trimeprazine tartrate 2 mg/kg, methadone 0.1 mg/kg plus droperidol 0.15 mg/kg (T.M.D.); oral midazolam 0.45 mg/kg; intramuscular midazolam 0.15 mg/kg. Amnesia was tested for four pictorial facts, and for induction of anesthesia. For pictorial facts, both routes of midazolam administration gave a sixty percent incidence of amnesia compared with sixteen percent in the control group (p less than 0.001). The T.M.D. premedication provided a forty-three percent incidence, also better than the control group (p less than 0.05). Induction was remembered by fifty percent of the midazolam children compared with sixty-six percent of the T.M.D. group (p greater than 0.05) and eight-one percent of the control group (p less than 0.05). The potential advantages of amnesia in pediatric premedication are discussed.