• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Anesthesiologists, rather than surgeons, should administer propofol, a potentially dangerous medication that can induce a light form of anesthesia, according to an editorial published in the July issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, July 14, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor Alert!

Anesthesiologists, rather than surgeons, should administer propofol, a potentially dangerous medication that can induce a light form of anesthesia, according to an editorial published in the July issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

The drug, which is also sold under the trade name Diprivan, can render a patient unconscious in high doses and is commonly used during ambulatory surgery. It can be hazardous when administered by inexperienced or untrained medical personnel, say editorialists Marc E. Koch, MD, MBA, and Clifford M. Gevirtz, MD, MPH, of Somnia, Inc., a New Rochelle, NY-based management service organization that specializes in office-based and ambulatory anesthesia services.

Anesthesiologists are better suited to administer the drug, they write, because they have completed medical school and a special three-year residency that provides them with special skills for using potent medications and treating patients who may have adverse reactions.

Other medical specialists, such as surgeons and gastroenterologists, lack the appropriate residency in anesthesiology and are not as familiar with powerful anesthetic medications and the treatment of anesthesia-related complications, they write.

The editorial appears at a time when the administration of anesthesia by nonanesthesiologists has received increased attention as a patient safety issue.

"Patients should accept nothing less than an anesthesiologist, a medical doctor who has finished medical school and has several years of additional anesthesia training," writes Koch. "As medical professionals, we have an obligation to ourselves and our profession to ensure that we are providing the utmost level of care to our patients."

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor Alert!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive