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from the machines-replacing-the-very-skilled-laborer dept.
Say hello to the hunk of plastic that could replace your anesthesiologist. Right now, only four U.S. hospitals are using the Sedasys anesthesiology machine to sedate patients before surgery. Johnson & Johnson has been cautiously rolling out the machine after winning approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2013. The FDA originally rejected the machine in 2010, but later approved after Johnson & Johnson agreed it would only be used for simple screenings--like colonoscopies or endoscopies--and only when an anesthesiology doctor or nurse was on-call.
The machine administers a measured dose of propofol to the patient, and the drug acts quickly. To keep patients safe, the machine is programmed with conservative parameters. Even the slightest problem--for example, if the patient has low blood oxygen or a slow heart rate--slows or stops the drug's infusion. According to the Washington Post, the machine has stricter limits than a human anesthesiologist would have.
http://www.popsci.com/meet-machine-could-replace-anesthesiologists
(Score: 2) by pendorbound on Thursday May 14 2015, @04:44PM
From the website, "minimal-to-moderate sedation". This isn't for deep anesthesia for major surgery.
It's for sedation for uncomfortable procedures (colonoscopy) that patients would prefer to sleep through. Possibly for minor surgery where local anesthesia provides the actual pain relief, but putting the patient out is more comfortable, convenient, or safer (no flailing about or freaking out at the sight of blood).
Certainly still the case that propofol can go sideways quick in some patients, but we're not talking about the "walking the line between alive & dead" kind of deep anesthesia that's necessary for major surgery where local anesthetics can't be administered effectively.
This might be more for putting you out when you're getting stitches where the cost of an anesthesiologist isn't reasonable given than the degree of discomfort you'd endure from just a local, but where many people would nonetheless prefer to checkout for the duration.
Using something like this may enable the use of propofol which has a much shorter half-life than things like diazepam or other sedatives. The benefit is that you're out quicker, and wake up faster, so less recovery time & less feeling "drugged" after the procedure is complete. The need for this machine comes from the fact that dosing for propofol is MUUUCH more finicky than other sedatives. It needs to be administered in tiny amounts constantly through the procedure, and the patient wakes up soon after the drug feed stops. (And would die quickly from an overdose trying to make it "last longer".)
As far as the machine giving up in case of anomalies, yes the patient would wake up, but not screaming in pain. You'd still have a local in effect for wherever the doc is actually cutting. You'd just wake up instead of sleep through it. Not the best thing to wake up to sure, but not the same as waking up in the middle of open heart surgery or something.