ShareReducing sedation and managing and treating pain are important objectives for clinicians. The primary goal should always be to promote the comfort of the patient and to minimise pain through the proper use of multimodal analgesia. The use of opioid drugs should be avoided unless absolutely necessary; and focus should be placed on achieving pain control through combined pain management strategies. The use of the ABCDEF bundled approach, the implementation of the eCASH Concept and the effective use of epidural analgesia are all strategies that can be used to balance sedation and analgesia in the ICU.
The four take-home messages from this debate are:
- Minimise deep and prolonged sedation
- Promote comfort and analgesia
- Minimise opioids
- Promote multimodal analgesia
Acknowledgment
The participants would like to thank Aspen for its unrestricted educational grant allowing them to have this discussion and the staff which helped them organise and conduct this discussion.
