Podcast 575: Light on the Sedation

Contributor: Aaron Lessen, MD

Educational Pearls:

• Studies have shown that patients who are under deeper sedation in the ICU have worse outcomes.
• Recent study compared lighter vs heavier sedation of patients in the emergency department receiving mechanical ventilation
• Patients receiving lighter sedation in the ED were often continued in the ICU
• Patients who had lighter sedation also tended to do better, meaning less days on the ventilator, less days in the ICU, and lower mortality supporting prior observations.
• Though purely observational, interesting suggestion that lighter sedation starting in the emergency department could have significant impact on important clinical outcomes

References

Fuller BM, Roberts BW, Mohr NM, et al. The ED-SED Study: A Multicenter, Prospective Cohort Study of Practice Patterns and Clinical Outcomes Associated With Emergency Department SEDation for Mechanically Ventilated Patients. Crit Care Med. 2019;47(11):1539‐1548. doi:10.1097/CCM.0000000000003928

Summarized by Jackson Roos, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD