Saturday, April 12, 2008

ICU sedation

I’m not sure about the title of this article in Chest: Patient-Focused Sedation and Analgesia in the ICU. I thought everything we do is supposed to be patient focused. Anyway, it’s a helpful review which covers the ins and outs of various classes of agents and makes these key points:

Establish a specific rationale and specific goals at the start of treatment. (In other words, instead of “hurry up and snow the patient before the intubation meds wear off” take a few minutes to think).

Use a protocol.

Use daily sedation interruption.

Know your pharmacology.

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