NTRODUCTION

Paediatric ophthalmologists are commonly faced with an uncooperative child who needs to undergo a diagnostic procedure as simple as funduscopy or slightly more invasive, such as intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement or gonioscopy.Concerns have been raised about severe adverse events (AE) related to its use, mainly as a result of overdosage and in some countries (eg, the USA) it is not included in the list of approved drugs.Alternatives to examination under general anaesthesia (EUA) are highly sought after, since an EUA is costly, relies on the availability of staff and time in the operating theatre, and also carries a non-negligible risk of damage to the child's development that has been k increasingly recognized in recent years.1

Chloral hydrate (CH) is an old drug that has been used for procedural sedation in children, espe-cially for diagnostic imaging.