Volatile Sedation for Patients With the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

It is routine for patients to be sedated for their comfort and safety whilst on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Conventionally sedatives are given intravenously, however inhaled volatile sedation is becoming more popular. Inhaled sedation has recently been approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom (UK).

Whilst being on a ventilator can be life-saving, it can cause potential problems. It is important that the patient interacts well with the ventilator and that their own breathing efforts are well regulated. There is evidence that inhaled sedation can specifically help the lungs when patients have the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and in particular, inhaled sedation does not appear to suppress patient's own breathing as much as conventional sedation. Greater spontaneous breathing by the patient is usually positive but needs to be carefully understood to ensure it is not excessive or damaging to the patient's already injured lungs.

This study of 20 patients is designed to carefully measure the impact of inhaled sedation on the patient's breathing and lung function, in comparison to intravenous sedation. Measurements will be taken whilst on intravenous sedation before the patient is switched to an equivalent level of inhaled sedation for six hours, when the measurements will be repeated. Finally, the patient will go back to their original intravenous sedation and the measurements taken again. This is called a 'cross-over' study and is a good way to evaluate the effect of the drug.