PATIENT-CONTROLLED SEDATION DURING TRANSVAGINAL OOCYTE RETRIEVAL - ANASSESSMENT OF PATIENT ACCEPTANCE OF PATIENT-CONTROLLED SEDATION USINGA MIXTURE OF PROPOFOL AND ALFENTANIL

Patient-controlled sedation (PCS) has been used during many different surgical procedures, both alone and as an adjunct to local or regional anaesthesia. Sedation with an admixture of propofol and alfentanil du ring transvaginal oocyte retrieval has been used successfully in this unit and this study was performed to assess the degree of patient acce ptance of patient-controlled sedation, as other studies have indicated that self-administration of sedation may confer additional benefits o n the patient, unrelated to the choice of sedation agent. An admixture of 50 mL propofol 1% with alfentanil 2 mg was loaded into a Graseby 3 300 patient-controlled analgesia pump and administered as increments o f 0.3 mL with a zero lock-our interval. This method of sedation provid ed safe and highly satisfactory sedation for this group of patients wi th 55 of 56 patients indicating that they would opt for this type of s edation again. There was a very low incidence of over-sedation, and th is sedation method is likely to produce a relaxed and co-operative pat ient for a wide variety of surgical procedures.