Use of dexmedetomidine for monitored anesthesia care for diskography in adolescents.

Procedural sedation in children and adolescents is becoming increasingly employed to facilitate successful diagnostic imaging studies. Keeping the patient adequately sedated yet easily arousable can be of utmost importance during image-guided diskography. Dexmedetomidine provides an adequate level of sedation for diagnostic imaging studies. This sedation is unique in that the patients are sedated and sleepy but are easily aroused when stimulated and are able to follow commands appropriately. In addition, it preserves respiratory function even when administered in higher-than-recommended doses for sedation. This case series describes our clinical experience in using dexmedetomidine as the sole sedative agent to facilitate diskography in 4 adolescent patients, ranging in age from 15 to 18 years, who presented with chief complaints of back pain and degenerative diskitis. The clinical endpoints of sedation and analgesia were cooperative and still patients during needle placement in the intervertebral disks.