Service description

Intravenous (IV) sedation is a type of anesthesia (drugs that relax a patient and stop them from feeling pain) given through a tube placed in a vein. It is also known as monitored anesthesia care (MAC), conscious sedation, or in some cases, "twilight sleep."

WHAT TO EXPECT

Monitored anesthesia, or IV sedation, is administered through a vein. Patients may be able to talk, depending on the level of anesthesia used, or instead be in a deep sleep. Patients are able to breathe on their own so that intubation (placing a tube into the windpipe) is not needed. IV sedation is used for a colonoscopy, oral surgery, some plastic surgery procedures, and increasingly for some procedures previously done with a general anesthetic, such as hernia repairs.

BENEFITS

The benefits of using intravenous sedation during oral or plastic surgery and other procedures include the following: • Ability to administer a more precise amount of anesthesia • A higher level of safety • Less incidence of postoperative nausea, vomiting, urinary retention, pulmonary complications and malignant hyperthermia (a life-threatening but rare complication of a general anesthetic) • Faster reversal (coming out of anesthesia) • Less risk of blood clots and pulmonary emboli (blood clots that travel to the lungs) Because the patient is able to breathe on their own with IV sedation, both the surgeon and the anesthesiologist become aware of the patient’s discomfort before the patient does and can respond with an increase in the local anesthetic (drugs that stop pain) or level of sedation.