Nonionic iodinated intravenous contrast material-related reactions: incidence in large urban children's hospital--retrospective analysis of data in 12,494 patients.

PURPOSE: To examine the incidence and severity of nonionic intravenous contrast material reactions in a large pediatric patient population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Electronic records on all consecutive patients at a tertiary care pediatric hospital who received ioversol contrast material over a 7-year period for computed tomographic or excretory urographic studies were reviewed, yielding individual contrast material injection events in 12,494 patients up to 21 years of age. There were 6600 male patients and 5894 female patients. Contrast material reactions were categorized as mild, moderate, or severe according to American College of Radiology guidelines. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate effects of age, sex, season, and study year on the presence of an intravenous contrast material reaction. RESULTS: There were 57 adverse events related to nonionic iodinated intravenous contrast material in 12,494 consecutive pediatric and young adult patients. Incidence of a contrast material reaction was 0.46% (57 of 12,494), or one in 200 patients. Incidence of a type I (mild) contrast material reaction was 0.38% (47 of 12,494), or one in 250 patients. Incidence of a type II (moderate) reaction was 0.08% (10 of 12,494), or one in 1000 patients. There were no severe (type III) reactions. The average age of patients with a contrast material reaction (12.9 years +/- 4.3 [standard deviation]) was 3.4 years older (P < .001) than the average age of all patients in the study (9.5 years +/- 5.9). There was a significant relationship between patient age and incidence of contrast material reaction per 1000 studies (P = .003), independent of sex, season, and year of study. CONCLUSION: Adverse reactions to intravenous administration of a nonionic contrast material (ioversol) are rare in children and increase in frequency with advancing age. The great majority of reactions in children are mild.

The development of a pediatric radiology sedation program.

BACKGROUND: An increase in the number of patients undergoing sedation for imaging procedures has led to many changes in practice over the past 10 years. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare and evaluate sedation practice changes in a pediatric radiology department during the last 5 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The radiology computer database and corresponding minutes of the Radiology Sedation Committee were reviewed to identify changes in sedation policy. Data from three blocks of time were analyzed to determine time to sedation, time to discharge, drug frequency, rates of adverse events, sedation failure, and paradoxical reaction. RESULTS: Specific practice changes undertaken over the 5-year period include: (1) increased speed of administration of IV pentobarbital, (2) alternating pentobarbital and fentanyl, (3) presedation with midazolam, and (4) administering oral pentobarbital to children under and (5) over 12 months of age. Based on data analysis, changes 1 and 4 were incorporated into the sedation policy, while changes 2, 3, and 5 were abandoned. Comparison of data from the three time segments revealed improvement in the time to sedation, sedation failure, adverse event, and paradoxical reaction rates. CONCLUSION: There is improvement in all aspects of patient outcomes with sedation, as a result of several changes in sedation practice.