Problems related to agitation in the ICU patients include cardiorespiratory instability, inability to cooperate with nursing care, failure to maintain op-timal positioning in bed, disruption of life-sustaining tubes and catheters, and injuries to
patients and hospital personnel. Thus, the ability to provide safe, controllable, and reversible sedation can be important in the care of critically ill patients.
Midazolam is a water- soluble imidazobenzodiazepine with a rapid onset of ac-tion and short elimination half-life compared with diazepam or lorazepam. We evaluated the use of midazolam by continuous infusion for prolonged sedation of critically
ill
adult patients.
@ES The results were as follow;
@EN 1) Midazolam infusion effectively controlled severe agitation in all patien-ts.
2) No episodes of cardiovascular depression due to midazolam occur-red during the study period.
3) In one patient, tolerance was developed 6 days after infusion.
4) Mean time to alertness was 2.23 hours.
5) In a renal failure patient, there was no signiticant prolongation of time to alertness.
These results suggest that midazolam infusion provides safe, controllable, and reversible sedation in the care of critically ill patients.
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