General anesthesia versus conscious sedation

August 9, 2005

Laurie,

That was an interesting abstract. I was getting ready to do a search myself

to see what I could find out. I have only had two ERCP's since I had a Distal

Pancreatectomy shortly after the second ERCP. The first ERCP I might have

well been awake for the whole thing, as I essentially was, since I kept waking

up. After telling the GI this and my concern about repeating this scenario

with the next ERCP, he did make an attempt to sedate me more, but I was still

able to give him a fair account of what went on.

You know, in my experience, doctors and other health care providers are not

willing to take that extra step to effectively sedate patients. I personally

am a horrible IV stick and absolutely dislike needles and pain. Therefore

when I had PICC lines put in, I told them I had to have at least conscious

sedation. They were not enthusiastic. They said that it was ridiculous to stick

me

for IV Versed and Fentanyl and then stick me for the PICC. I did not care,

since I had assisted with PICC line insertion and was well aware of how

patients responded. Of course, everyone is different. Some people don't think

they

are any big deal. But, the deal is that it does not matter. We are the

patient, the healthcare consumers. I wish that was totally true. At any rate,

they

persuaded me to try it, saying it would be over before they could even start

a butterfly of r sedation. It wasn't a minute into this procedure that they

had to stop, give me sedation, and you know the rest.... If that PICC had not

been my first one, I would have stood my ground, but with the first I did not

have first hand experience to make my case.

Having read this abstract you brought to our attention, it provides us with

the resources to make informed healthcare decisions. It is important to know

what our choices are. I must say that the abstract surprises me, as I was not

aware of being able to intubate a patient during any type of endoscopic

procedure.

Karyn E. , RN

Executive Director, PAI

Indianapolis, Indiana

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