Archives de pédiatrie : organe officiel de la Sociéte française de pédiatrie
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Children under 6 often show marked anxiety and physical pain during laceration repair. If locally infiltrated anesthetics usually give a good control of physical pain, they have no effect on anxiety and restlessness for which several medications are available for conscious sedation. Continuous nitrous oxide, intramuscular sedative "cocktail" with meperidine-promethazine-chlorpromazine or intravenous fentanyl have various inconveniences and therefore are not ideal for this purpose. By contrast, Midazolam, a short acting watersoluble benzodiazepine with anxiolitic, hypnotic and anterograde amnestic effect, appears to be a safe and effective treatment when given orally or intranasally for alleviating anxiety in under 6 year-old out-patient in emergency department; its rectal administration appears less effective and needs further studies before to be routinely used.