Who uses something other than propofol or versed drips for sedation in the ICU?

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Permalink Reply by alice3201 on July 10, 2010 at 9:35am

I work in a PICU and we usually use Fentanyl and Versed for pain/ sedation while intubated, but lately we are using Precedex (dexmetatomidine) more and more. It is generally used as an adjunct though, not by itself, for particularly ballistic patients who might otherwise require really massive doses of Fentanyl and Versed to keep them "down." The only time I think we use it as a solo drug is with patients who require noninvasive ventilation (CPAP, biPAP etc), and it has really worked well for that. Cheers!

Permalink Reply by medic971 on July 10, 2010 at 9:58am

Thanks for the input!

alice3201 said:

I work in a PICU and we usually use Fentanyl and Versed for pain/ sedation while intubated, but lately we are using Precedex (dexmetatomidine) more and more. It is generally used as an adjunct though, not by itself, for particularly ballistic patients who might otherwise require really massive doses of Fentanyl and Versed to keep them "down." The only time I think we use it as a solo drug is with patients who require noninvasive ventilation (CPAP, biPAP etc), and it has really worked well for that. Cheers!

Permalink Reply by bluetrish on July 11, 2010 at 10:39pm

I just recently saw an increase with this drug being used in the ICU. This is being used in combination with Propofol. Recently I spoke with our pharmacist who said they prefer pts not be on Propofol for an extended time frame

Permalink Reply by Jenny RN on February 6, 2011 at 12:48am

Yeah the anesthesia guys love the white stuff.. propofol

Permalink Reply by Tracey on May 11, 2012 at 11:23pm

I loved when we used Propofol- it was so easy. Before that we used quite a bit of Ativan/Versed gtts. Bad thing about Ativan is that it stays so long in their system after its off and pts were going for unnecessary tests like ct scans of head/ mri's etc to check brain activity. We often use Fentanyl (for pain) with Versed and have both drips, one potentiates the effect of the other. Never used the one you spoke of but did read up on it.