Propofol shortage

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ethilo

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In the spirit of opioid shortages, what would you do if there was a propofol shortage? I'm curious of people's plans for various anesthetic scenarios.
 
Biggest challenge would be for MAC. Its easy to do mild to moderate sedation with other drugs, but I don’t know what I would do for deep sedation, which is what most of the surgeons want unfortunately.
 
BobBarker said:
There was a propofol shortage in 2011. We used Brevital.
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Induction for GA is easy, yoj could use whatever agent you want. Would you use brevital for sedation?

Brevital is longer acting. I suppose it would work for sedation, but you would just have to do intermittent boluses?
 
Intermittent boluses.

The real alternative if it can’t be done under block and moderate sedation is to just put LMAs in every patient and use Sevo for induction as well.
 
facted said:
I heard people were doing endo with etomidate during the last shortage. Sounds barbaric.
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Etomidate is actually a great sedation drug. It's titratable and has the most favorable context-sensitive half time out of any drug out there.

DA4C18FF9.jpg
 
Ronin786 said:
Etomidate is actually a great sedation drug. It's titratable and has the most favorable context-sensitive half time out of any drug out there.

DA4C18FF9.jpg
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It is also hurts like the dickens on injection and causes a ton of nausea. Not an ideal profile for an ambulatory anesthetic.
 
dipriMAN said:
Brevital is longer acting. I suppose it would work for sedation, but you would just have to do intermittent boluses?
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Brevital would be a terrible drug for sedation. It causes a lot of myoclonic movement. It's much, much worse than etomidate. It's so bad that if you use it as an induction drug for general anesthesia with the plan to use a LMA, you'll probably want or need to use muscle relaxant because of the nonstop twitching and hiccuping.

You'd never get through an endoscopy with it.
 
I’m surprised nobody mentioned ketamine/versed combo. Would work fine for GA induction, and ketamine works wonders for sedation for burn dressing changes. A 0.5-0.75 mg/kg bolus up front followed by 10-20 mg bolus intermittently seems to produce a pretty zonked patient who tolerates pretty painful/stimulating stuff. Heck it even helps lube the endoscope for the EGD, and encourages spontaneous ventilation
 
Except there's currently a ketamine shortage as well..

WashMe said:
I’m surprised nobody mentioned ketamine/versed combo. Would work fine for GA induction, and ketamine works wonders for sedation for burn dressing changes. A 0.5-0.75 mg/kg bolus up front followed by 10-20 mg bolus intermittently seems to produce a pretty zonked patient who tolerates pretty painful/stimulating stuff. Heck it even helps lube the endoscope for the EGD, and encourages spontaneous ventilation
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WashMe said:
I’m surprised nobody mentioned ketamine/versed combo. Would work fine for GA induction, and ketamine works wonders for sedation for burn dressing changes. A 0.5-0.75 mg/kg bolus up front followed by 10-20 mg bolus intermittently seems to produce a pretty zonked patient who tolerates pretty painful/stimulating stuff. Heck it even helps lube the endoscope for the EGD, and encourages spontaneous ventilation
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With the amount of **** coming out of patients' mouths during upper endoscopies/ERCPs even with plain ol' propofol, giving ketamine on top would lead me to worry that they would be have a higher chance of aspirating. Maybe premedicate them with a little glyco if you think it's going to be a longer endoscopy/ERCP?

Definitely does sound like a good drug to be able to fall back on for these procedures if there is a propofol shortage...will have to try it sometime.
 
Urzuz said:
With the amount of **** coming out of patients' mouths during upper endoscopies/ERCPs even with plain ol' propofol, giving ketamine on top would lead me to worry that they would be have a higher chance of aspirating. Maybe premedicate them with a little glyco if you think it's going to be a longer endoscopy/ERCP?

Definitely does sound like a good drug to be able to fall back on for these procedures if there is a propofol shortage...will have to try it sometime.
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ERCP always intubated at multiple places I've worked.
 
facted said:
ERCP always intubated at multiple places I've worked.
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Believe it or not, anesthetics can be performed in different ways! 😱

For real though, in training we did almost every ERCP under MAC. In practice, I do a combination of both, and make my decision based on the GI docs speed, sickness of the patient, etc etc
 
eikenhein said:
I was facetious. But I do think it is BS to deal with these drug shortages on a near daily basis. We aren't a 3rd world country
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The last propofol shortage was a factory issue, as most of our meds are manufactured overseas and the factory processing propofol was found to be far less than sterile. It lasted for the better part of a year in my area, and I was working the ICU so you can imagine that we don't have the option of shutting down for a year lol
 
ethilo said:
In the spirit of opioid shortages, what would you do if there was a propofol shortage? I'm curious of people's plans for various anesthetic scenarios.
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Look up the threads from 6-8 years ago, and you'll find the answers. 😉
 
dipriMAN said:
Induction for GA is easy, yoj could use whatever agent you want. Would you use brevital for sedation?

Brevital is longer acting. I suppose it would work for sedation, but you would just have to do intermittent boluses?
Click to expand...
BREVItal is longer acting than what?
 
Of course ERCP can be done under MAC. Then again, when you look at all the secretions on the patients pillow at the end of it and realize you're actually giving GA without the ability of the patient to protect their airway, why do you think it's a good idea to do it under MAC?

I've seen someone do a one level laminectomy under MAC. It can be done, Doesn't make it smart. Anesthesia is all about limiting risk, not about getting away with it.
 
Ronin786 said:
Etomidate is actually a great sedation drug. It's titratable and has the most favorable context-sensitive half time out of any drug out there.

DA4C18FF9.jpg
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Remifenatnil + midazolam isn’t a bad choice either.

I have started to become more leery of etomidate. I’m not sure we don’t hurt people with it.
 
Physio Doc 2 Be said:
Remifenatnil + midazolam isn’t a bad choice either.

I have started to become more leery of etomidate. I’m not sure we don’t hurt people with it.
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That had been much of my mindset, especially when I discover that one indication for etomidate was adrenal suppression in patients with Cushing syndrome.

That said, nothing out there as far as data supports any increase in mortality from the adrenal suppression. Take it FWIW, but a Cochrane review is out there without any increase in mortality related to etomidate use Single induction dose of etomidate versus other induction agents for endotracheal intubation in critically ill patients

Granted as an anesthesiologist, there are cleaner ways to put a sick patient to sleep. But I do think its harm is overblown. Especially when compared to ketamine (taking myocardial depression into account) and propofol. You've also got to consider that a lot of cardiac cases are done using etomidate solely and in the hands of a less-experienced provider (ED, ICU) it really shouldn't be as demonized as it is.
 
Ronin786 said:
That had been much of my mindset, especially when I discover that one indication for etomidate was adrenal suppression in patients with Cushing syndrome.

That said, nothing out there as far as data supports any increase in mortality from the adrenal suppression. Take it FWIW, but a Cochrane review is out there without any increase in mortality related to etomidate use Single induction dose of etomidate versus other induction agents for endotracheal intubation in critically ill patients

Granted as an anesthesiologist, there are cleaner ways to put a sick patient to sleep. But I do think its harm is overblown. Especially when compared to ketamine (taking myocardial depression into account) and propofol. You've also got to consider that a lot of cardiac cases are done using etomidate solely and in the hands of a less-experienced provider (ED, ICU) it really shouldn't be as demonized as it is.
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The (admittedly) retrospective paper from 2013 hat showed a large increase in OR for 30 day mortality has me looking for other ways to get people to sleep.
 
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