Propofol + Conscious sedation ? What's best ?

[sitroenn]

I am due to have two extractions: wisdom and lower 8. I was referred to hospital who were very unclear about fasting times. I have M.E. and problems with low blood sugar so this is important to get right. Eventually I got so sick of the hospital being so unclear that I went to my dentists who have an OS and he said he could do the procedure with max 2 hour fasting --- which I can manage.

Then he looked at my history --- I have bad reaction to diazepam (agitation, panic, profuse sweating) so midazolam (usually used fro Con Sed) is out as its part of the same family of drugs. He recommends that I go back to hospital and ask to speak with their OS and ask for propofol.


Is propofol safe ? Am I likely to have a bad reaction to that and what are the fasting time for propofol ?

Any advice ?

Dentist also said I could have nitrous oxide but that the sedative effects are not very strong and would probably not 'do the job' for such extractions.

Help !!!

 

[Gordon]

Propofol is perfectly "safe", but it's not suitable for use on an outpatient basis.

The reason for this is that there is a very fine line between sedation and full out general anaesthesia with this drug, it needs to be given in a facility which can manage if GA is accidentally induced. Normally that translates to a hospital with an ICU. It also needs to be given by a qualified anaesthetist in most cases.

As for fasting, that would be a bit more of an issue here, my anaesthetist would insist on 6hrs starvation as per a GA, because of the risks I've already mentioned. BUT it's perfectly feasible for you to be given IV glucose to keep your blood sugar up before you get the treatment, so although you might not get to eat anything, that won't matter.

Hope this helps a bit?