I welcome the paper by Frampton et al¹ describing their experiences of nurse administered nitrous oxide, which adds further evidence to the literature² supporting this technique as a useful and safe method of easing the suffering of children during their attendance at an emergency department.

I feel that the use of the term “relative analgesia” is somewhat confusing; this is not a term previously encountered in the literature describing sedative/analgesic techniques. The United States guidance (their reference 2) does not use this term when defining sedation levels nor do the current UK^3,4 and Australasian⁵ guidance and …