Patient satisfaction with conscious sedation for bronchoscopy

Study objectice: Bronchoscopic technique is not standardized. Controversies exist with regard to premedication with sedatives before the test. To eval uate safety and efficacy of conscious sedation, we studied 100 randomized p atients undergoing diagnostic bronchoscopy; patients received premedication with lidocaine spray and atropine sulfate IM (nonsedation group; 50 patien ts) or lidocaine spray, atropine IM and diazepam IV (sedation group; 50 pat ients). Methods and results: Monitoring during flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy inc luded continuous ECG and pulse oximetry. The procedure could not be complet ed in sir; patients. None received premedication with diazepam; among the p atients who ended the examination, tolerance to the examination (visual ana logue scale, 0 to 100; 0 = excellent; 100 = unbearable) was better in the s edation group. Low anxiety, male sex, but not age were also associated with improved patient tolerance to the test. Oxygen desaturation occurred in 17 % of patients, and it was not more frequent after diazepam treatment. Conclusion: In our study, sedation had a beneficial effect on patient toler ance and rarely induced significant alterations in cardiorespiratory monito ring parameters.