Not Always Top 5 - Emergence Agitation
- Occurs in about 10% of children
- Lasts about 20 minutes
- Characterised by crying, lack of eye contact, non purposeful actions/verbalisations
- Exclude other causes (pain, hypoxia, hypercarbia, hypotension, raised ICP, full bladder)
- Clonidine 1mcg/kg IV works well
PS - Getting parents in to calm a child with emergence agitation is not helpful, as the child is in a dissociated state and will not usually respond. You will just end up with distressed parents too.
