Post-Intubation Sedation: Scott Weingart

Scott Weingart discusses post-intubation sedation – a topic that tends to aggrieve him on a regular basis. Scott explains in simple terms why he is bemused at the lack of understanding surrounding intubated patients who become agitated or aggressive. How would you like a piece of plastic placed down your throat? The problem, as Scott explains, is that sedation does not blunt pain. Sedation without analgesia leads to delirium. In simple terms delirium leads to poor outcomes and death. Moreover, concerningly, the early sedation strategy of intubated patients has long term and far-reaching outcomes during their course of critical illness. So, what can be done? Scott explains that we need patients properly sedated, however not too deeply sedated. The goal needs to be a patient who is oriented, safe and with a normal sleep-wake cycle. Paralysis is not the answer. What is the answer? Scott walks you through A1 sedation – meaning analgesia first. Once pain is controlled, then sedation comes in to play. Scott stresses with analgesia first, the sedation needed is less. He explains how he achieves this in practice in detail. He then provides some clinical examples and how he would approach them including which specific medications he uses in practice. Scott’s main points are simple. Control the pain and very few patients will need a lot of sedation. In addition, if you adequately control the pain, very few patients will have delirium in the Emergency Department. Join Scott as he passionately discusses post-intubation sedation. For more like this, head to our podcast page. #CodaPodcast