Abstract

Background: Oral midazolam is one of the most frequently used agents for the preceding anesthesia induction. The injectable form of midazolam can also be given orally. However, the bad taste of it has negative effects on ingestion of the drug. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the effect of drinks which were added to mask the bitter taste of midazolam on drug acceptance and inducing a trouble free anesthesia. Methods: In the laboratory; the pH values of 2.5 ml midazolam (15 mg/3 ml) and the mixtures of fresh orange juice and grapefruit juice in equal volumes were measured. Sixty healthy patients between 5 and 8 years of age who were assessed to have anxiety with Frankl Behaviour Scale and whose dental treatment was planned under general anesthesia were randomly divided into four groups. The fresh orange juice (Group I), fresh grapefruit juice (Group II) which were added to 0.5 m/kg midazolam of equal masses, or only 0.5 mg/kg midazolam (Group III) given orally to children. The Group IV included no medication. After 15 minutes, the induction and the maintenance process of anesthesia were similar in both all groups. The manner of subjects when separated from parents, their cooperation during intravenous catheterization, and recalling the pre-anesthetic events were recorded by the Ramsay Sedation Scale (RSS). Data were analyzed by adopting chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests. Results: The groups had similar demographics, drug ingestion was better in Group I and the mean RSS was observed the highest in group I (p < 0.05). Conclusions: As well as making drug ingestion much simpler, the addition of orange juice to the midazolam administered orally to the children increases the effectiveness for comfortable separation of children from parents and restful IV catheterization and also forgetting the pre-anesthetic events.

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