Plastic surgical nursing : official journal of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgical Nurses
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Conscious sedation is an appropriate choice for patients who do not require a general anesthetic, but rather need sedation to alleviate anxiety, minimize the discomfort of less invasive surgical procedures, or even to tolerate a regional or local anesthetic. New pharmaceutical agents, with their short half lives, provide amnesia, analgesia, and sedation quite safely. ⋯ Standards and guidelines have been extensively developed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, to set forth a practice for all providers that will promote patient safety and provider vigilance (AANA, 1998). The purpose of this article is to review the process of conscious sedation.