Younger children or those with learning difficulties are generally unable to lie still for neuroimaging. There is controversy over whether anaesthesia or sedation should be used.1 2 We describe our experience of both sedation and anaesthesia for neuroimaging between 2000 and 2004. The sedation is detailed in table 1.

A total of 297 children (median age 2 years, interquartile range (IQR) 1 year to 4 years 5 months) underwent oral sedation for neuroimaging. Twenty-eight per cent of the children had neuro-developmental disabilities. Chloral hydrate was the first drug in 64%, quinalbarbitone in 35%, paraldehyde in 0.5% and …