title: Is sedation without desaturation possible?
abstract: The correlation between the depth of sedation and the degree of oxygen desaturation was studied in 52 patients presenting for surgery under regional anaesthesia. After establishing successful regional anaesthesia, patients were sedated with incremental doses of intravenous midazolam. The various levels of sedation were scored from 0 to IV. Continuous pulse oximetry allowed for correlation of sedation and saturation. Each patient's presedation oxygen saturation served as the control value. This was compared with the saturation at sedation levels II, III and IV and was found to be significantly higher (p less than 0.001). There was also a significant drop in saturation as patients progressed from sedation level II to III (p less than 0.02) and from level III to IV (p less than 0.001). The incidence of saturation falling to less than 90% was 4.35%, 14.71% and 40% at sedation scores of II, III and IV respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Alexandra Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Omar
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Low
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016292:Procedural Sedation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen