Nurse Delivered Sedation and General Anesthesia

Newswise — Moderate sedation is commonly used for patients undergoing interventional procedures, such as colonoscopies, which are done outside the operating room environment and normally carried out by sedation nurses. In a study that will be featured at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that 78 percent of patients who received nurse delivered sedation reached sedation levels consistent with general anesthesia.

The aim of moderate sedation is to allow patients to respond to verbal and tactile stimulation and not lose consciousness. According to anesthesiologist and lead study author, Tong J. Gan, M. D., "Findings from the Duke study suggest that a high percentage of patients who received nurse delivered sedation were in the range that is compatible with general anesthesia, which means that the patients lost consciousness sometime during the procedure, increasing the possibility of risk to the patient." The study included 595 patients, both male and female, undergoing interventional procedures including Colonoscopies, Upper GI Endoscopies and Bronchoscopy.

Adverse events occurred in 6% of the patients, which included episodes of oxygen desaturation, difficulty to arouse, pain, hyper and hypotension and restlessness.

Dr. Gan and his research team hope that their findings alert practitioners to the fact that drugs commonly used for moderate sedation may not keep the patient at the appropriate level of sedation, and many patients do, in fact, dip into general anesthesia or unconsciousness.

Therefore, it is important to monitor patients appropriately and educate practitioners on the use of these drugs. Dr. Gan also feels that nurses delivering sedation during small procedures should have an appropriate monitoring device and be educated about the use of the various drugs for achieving moderate sedation.

Anesthesiologists: Physicians providing the lifeline of modern medicine. Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists is an educational, research and scientific association with 43,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology and improve the care of the patient.

For more information visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists Web site at http://www.asahq.org.

Media Registration for the 2008 ASA Annual Meeting is now available at http://www2.asahq.org/web/miscfiles/08media.asp.