The purpose of this studywas to prospectively assess patient perception of pain and satisfaction for Interventional Radiological (IR) procedures [1]. This included interventional fluoroscopy, interventionalcomputed tomography (CT) andinterventionalultrasound (US). Inour institution, there has recently been a new 'sedation protocol' introduced with regards to sedating patients for interventional radiological procedures. Sedation dosing based on body weight has previously been shown to be beneficial in interventional radiology[2]. The sedation introduced protocol can be viewed in Fig. 1 . This research investigated patient pain and satisfaction levelspost-procedure, both...

Asedation protocol was developed, which utilised a stepwise approach,using patient weight to decide on appropriate dosing of midazolam and fentanyl [2]. In two separate 6 week time periods, both before and after protocol implementation, a total of 99 patients who received sedation were interviewed following IR procedures. Written consent was obtained. Patients quantified leves of pain and satisfaction using a 'Visual Analogue Scale.' (VAS). Pain was scored 0 ("no pain at all") to 10 ("worst imaginable pain"): See Fig. 2.Satisfaction was scored 0 ("very dissatisfied")...

Across all modalities, mean VAS pain score decreased from 3.9 (out of 10) before, to 2.3 after implementation of the protocol (p<0.01).Fig. 4 demonstrates the differences in reported pain for interventional fluoroscopic procedures,ultrasoundprocedures, and CT procedures, both before and after implementation. Reported pain decreased across all investigated modalities. Across all modalities, mean VAS satisfaction score increased from 9.0 before, to 9.3 after implementation of protocol. Fig. 5 demonstrates the differences in reported satisfaction for interventional fluoroscopic procedures,ultrasoundprocedures, and CT procedures, both before and after implementation.Reported...

The implementation of a sedation protocol achieved its goal of decreasing pain and increasing satisfaction during interventional radiology procedures [1,2]. The implementation of this protocol resulted in a more liberal use of fentanyl, and decreased use of midazolamThis correlated with improved pain control, and greater satisfactionexperienced during IR procedures.The sedationprotocolalso provided a useful guide for radiologists performing these procedures. Overall,the sedation protocol was successfully implemented, and acheived its goals of reducing patient pain, and increasing satisfaction during IR procedures. The implementation of similar sedation protocols...

[1] Mueller PR, Biswal S, Halpern EF, Kaufman JA & Lee MJ. Interventional Radiologic Procedures: Patient Anxiety, Perception of Pain, Understanding of Procedure and Satisfaction with Medication- A Prospective Study. Radiology 2000; 215:684-688. [2] Skehan S, Malone D et al. Sedation and Analgesia in Adult Patients: Evaluation of a Staged-Dose System Based on Body Weight for Use in Abdominal Interventional Radiology. Radiology 2000; 216:653-659.