Sedation

Sedation is a medicalprocedure involving administration of sedativedrugs, generally to facilitate a medical procedure, such as endoscopy, vasectomy, or minor surgery with local anaesthesia. Sedation can also be used in dentistryfor reconstructive surgery, removal of impacted wisdom teeth, or high-anxiety patients.

Airway obstruction, apnoeaand hypotensionare not uncommon during sedation and require the presence of health professionalswho are suitably trained to detect and manage these problems.

Sedation scales are used in medicalsituations in conjunction with medical history to assess the degree of sedation in patients to avoid under-sedation (where the patient would experience pain or distress) and over-sedation (where the risk of side effects such as supression of breathing might lead to death). Typically, levels are agitation, calm, responsive to voice only, to shaking only, to pain only and no response.

Examples include MSAT (Minnesota Sedation Assessment Tool) and the Ramsay Scale (Ramsay Et Al 1974)

See also

• Terminal sedation

External links

• Sedation - Article by Steven Conrad, MD
• Conscious Sedation - What Patients Should Expect
• IV Sedation
• Oral Sedation

fr:Sédation nl:Sedatie

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedation Wikipedia article Sedation.