Intravenous sedation is a form of anesthesia that causes partial memory loss and patients won't remember any of the procedures. Recovery is fast and patients will return to their routine quickly. It is a safer option compared to general anesthesia, which causes complete loss of consciousness. Patients under general anesthesia have a complete loss of consciousness.
This means that the patient won't feel, hear, or remember anything. To achieve this loss of consciousness, a mix of agents is necessary. On the contrary, a state between being very sleepy, being relaxed in consciousness and yet not being unconscious characterizes sedation. Patients won't feel pain, but they will be aware of what's going on around them.
With mild sedation, which is often used for eye surgery, the patient is awake and can respond to questions or instructions. With moderate sedation, the patient can fall asleep, but can wake up easily. Deep sedation is almost the same as general anesthesia, meaning that the patient is fast asleep even though they can breathe without assistance. Deep sedation with a medication called propofol is often used for procedures such as upper endoscopy or colonoscopy.
Cardiovascular function is not usually affected or maintained during the different stages of sedation. Minimal sedation is administered only to alleviate anxiety, with very little effect on the patient's consciousness, while moderate sedation depresses consciousness but leaves the patient able to respond to external stimuli (tactile or verbal). Sometimes, intravenous sedation and pain medications are combined with other types of pain management, such as local anesthesia, which consists of one or more injections to numb a small area of the body, or regional anesthesia, which numbs a larger part of the body, such as from the waist down. Conscious sedation is defined as “a drug-induced depression of consciousness during which patients purposefully respond to verbal commands and can keep their airway permeable.” However, this does not mean that, in some cases, respiratory support with sedation is not needed.
Different levels of sedation are possible, depending on the type of procedure and the patient's preferences. Technically, light sedation can be administered after a two-hour fast, but it is not recommended, especially in cases where the duration of the surgical procedure is unpredictable and can last much longer than expected and general anesthesia is necessary. Procedures that use sedation and pain medications can be performed in a hospital or in an outpatient setting, such as a same-day surgery center, doctor's office, or dentist's office. An analgesic is a medication used to achieve analgesic or pain relief and is often combined with sedation.
In conclusion, intravenous sedation offers many advantages over general anesthesia when it comes to safety and recovery time. It provides partial memory loss and patients will return to their routine quickly. It also allows for different levels of sedation depending on the type of procedure and patient preferences.
