A Comparative Study of Effect of Oral Melatonin Versus Oral Midazolam as Premedicant in Children Undergoing Surgery Under General Anesthesia

Background: preoperative anxiety in children is associated with multiple post-operative outcomes like post-operative regressive behavioral disturbances, prolonged distress in the recovery phase, eating disorders, and bedwetting. the present study was designed to use low-dose oral melatonin versus oral midazolam in relieving pre-operative anxiety in children in the indian population.materials and methods: a prospective randomized comparative study was conducted on children aged between 2 to 10 years of age scheduled for elective surgeries under general anesthesia are included in the study. this study was conducted with a sample size of 70. patients were randomly distributed into two groups of 35 content. group a (received 0.2mg/kg melatonin as premedical) and group b (received 0.5mg/kg midazolam as premedical).results: mean induction dose of propofol in the melatonin group was 52.143+ 18.36 mg and in the midazolam, the group was 48.714 + 16.6 mg. in our study, 90 minutes after premedication, the anxiety score was less in the midazolam group. there was no statistically significant difference between the sedation scores in melatonin and midazolam.conclusion: low-dose melatonin (0.2mg/kg) is not an effective alternative premedicant in children to alleviate preoperative anxiety compared to midazolam.