Procedural Sedation and Analgesia

Procedural sedation and analgesia is a technique that combines a sedating or dissociative medication with an analgesic drug to allow a non-surgical procedure to be carried out while reducing a patient's level of consciousness, without eliminating their ability to breathe on their own. It is used routinely in emergency departments and operating rooms for procedures that need more than local anesthesia but do not require the deeper unconsciousness of general anesthesia. Although considered safe with a low rate of complications, it requires a pre-procedural assessment of the patient, a check for contraindications, careful choice of sedative agent, and monitoring throughout and after the procedure.