Regional Anesthesia and Sedation. Monitoring with Oximetry and Capnography Increases Patient Safety During Procedure

Regional anesthesia provides numerous benefits to patients throughout the perioperative period, including improved comfort and satisfaction with pain control, less nausea and vomiting, and expeditious recovery and discharge. Sedation during surgery undern regional anesthesia plays a central role in facilitating patient comfort and anxiolysis. In recent decades the commonest medications used for sedation are midazolam, propofol, ketamine, dexmedetomidine, remimazolam and each possesses well-known pros and cons. The phrase “while some sleep, others keep watch,” along with monitoring, plays an important role in patient safety regarding sedation in regional anesthesia or other procedures. There are two important monitors during sedation: pulse oximetry and capnography. However, most anesthesiologists only use the pulse oximeter, even though capnographs are attached to all modern anesthesia machines. This article demonstrates the importance of using both pulse oximetry and capnographs for patient safety during sedation in regional anesthesia and other procedures. The combination of the two monitoring systems certainly increases patient safety.