R Mackenzie. Analgesia and Sedation

The principle aims of pre-hospital care are to preserve life, minimise complications resulting from injury and reduce pain and suffering (1).To achieve this, the pre-hospital practitioner should be confident in the safe use of a limited range of analgesic and sedative drugs (1,2). In this article, a summary of effective and safe techniques for analgesia and sedation in both the civilian and military pre-hospital environments is presented. In the military context, the material is relevant primarily to role one and role two medical support. Pre-hospital anaesthesia and the problems associated with injured children will be discussed in later articles in the series. Although every effort has been made to ensure that the doses stated are correct, readers should always check these with current product information and unit or departmental policy.