“Our hypothesis is that patients receiving propofol-mediated sedation will be at the baseline of their driving skills when they reach an Aldrete score of nine or 10,” says principal investigator John Vargo, MD, MPH, Director of Enterprise Endoscopy Operations at the Digestive Diseases & Surgery Institute, Chief of the Advanced Endoscopy Section, and Director of Endoscopic Research and Innovation. “If we can identify a segment of those patients, we would do a larger prospective study to validate that, and then it becomes very interesting. Potentially, these are patients who could drive themselves home after their procedure rather than having to arrange transportation.”
Guidelines and impacts
Dr. Vargo, an international authority on therapeutic japan email list endoscopy and president of the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, has conducted procedural sedation research for 25 years.
“We have found, as have others, that when propofol is used as a sedative agent, patients recover much more quickly than with traditional sedation,” he says. “That said, most requirements require us to keep such patients from driving, operating machinery, and similar activities until the next day.”
Guidelines can be vague regarding discharge criteria after procedural sedation. The American Society of Anesthesiologists practice guidelines for moderate procedural sedation say only that patients should:
Alert and oriented.
It is recommended that you avoid making life-changing decisions and participating in activities that may affect your safety until the sedative effects have worn off.
Discharged in the presence of a responsible adult.
