PERIPHERAL BRAIN
Emergency Drugs
Jill M. Baren MD1
James S. Seidel MD, PhD
1 Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA.
This section of Pediatrics in Review is designed to be clipped or duplicated and filed in a handy place in the office, clinic, or emergency department, providing a convenient and concise reference.
All offices in which children are examined should have pediatric emergency equipment, supplies, drugs, policies, and procedures. The equipment, supplies, and drugs kept in the office will depend on the spectrum of ill or injured children seen in the practice. However, a source of oxygen, basic resuscitation drugs (suited to the patient population and experience of the health-care providers), and a dosage chart or weight-based dosing tape (Figure 1) should be available in all offices. The following list of drugs is fairly comprehensive and is organized according to sign or symptom needing treatment. Health-care providers should become familiar with the information regarding specific drugs that they use commonly, eg, choose a short-acting benzodiazepine such as diazepam or lorazepam for treating status epilepticus.
The intraosseous (IO) route of drug administration can be used for the majority of emergency drugs listed in the chart that suggest administration by the intramuscular (IM) or intravenous (IV) routes. The IO route is appropriate for children age 6 years and younger and should be reserved for those circumstances where failure to achieve vascular access might result in loss of life or limb (ie, anaphylaxis, cardiopulmonary arrest).
