Very Important Question about sedation

heartICU · Apr 30, 2005

I had concious sedation last year for a bronchoscopy(sp?) and whatever the doc gave me totally knocked me on my little rearend for like three days. when I asked him what the heck he used he just said meds. the question i need to ask is how dangeous is that? I am supposesd to go for a cholecystectomy this month as a day surg but I am afraid that I will react badly to the sleepy stuff again? I dont want to end up in the hosp for longer

When you say you reacted badly, what do you mean? Do you mean it took you a few days to feel normal, or it resulted in additional interventions (like hospital admission, etc)? Trying to understand what happened:)

athomas91 · Apr 30, 2005

it is normal to take a few days to recover from even MAC anesthesia.

Laughing Gas · Apr 30, 2005

Most commonly used sedatives today loose their effect within minutes to hours. Some have residual effects. Sodium thiopental can leave you drunk for a couple days. Some benzos also have a pretty long duration of action. Most likely the drugs that will be used for a general will not leave you toasted for days. Always ask questions. Tell your CRNA or MDA about your previous experience.

Good Luck

yoga crna · Apr 30, 2005

The best thing for you to do is request a copy of your medical record of the bronchoscopy procedure. Get the entire record, so that you have the OR nursing record and PACU record. (These may be more accurate than the surgeon's report) That information should be given to the next anesthetist who will administer anesthesia for subsequent procedures.

The reaction to sedation may be related to the pharmacology of the meds, the way they were administered, your individual response, any pathology you had and even lack of oxygen during the procedure. In other words, there is no simple answer; get the records and take it from there.

Yoga CRNA

Danianne · Apr 30, 2005

I was totally toasted for 3 days. The nurse that was caring for me said that she had never seen someone react like that. I couldn't even stay awakelong enough to swallow a sip of water, but I could hear people talking about me and coudn't open my eyes or even resopnd. The drug that I think he used was Versed, but I am not sure. I just really dislike the thought of being in the hospital overnight again. besides I am a Nursing student and my class is on clinicals right now :eek:

Laughing Gas · Apr 30, 2005

As yogaCRNA said, there are alot of variables that may have played a part. Typically versed doesn't knock the doo doo out of people like that, but it can. I would ask my anesthesia provider about his /her feelings on induction without benzos. Propofol usually wears off in roughly 10 minutes, and the sedative effects of sublimaze shouldn't be much longer than an hour.

Any other drugs you are on can profoundly increase or decrease the length of action of any anesthestic agent.