In the last decades gastrointestinal endoscopy has become a commonly used minimal invasive procedure in the clinical practice. Based on the different complexity level of the operative endoscopic procedures the role of sedation is getting increasingly relevant.
Sedation is a drug induced consciousness depression which aim is to relieve patientâs anxiety and pain, and to induce amnesia of the intervention in order to improve the examinationâs outcome and the patientâs compliace.
Sedation may be classified in four stages: minimal, moderate, deep sedation and general anesthesia; they correspond to different stages of consciousness, airway protective reflexes and respiratory function impairment. Since the operatory field is shared with the endoscopist, a dedicated airway management is mandatory when deep sedation or general anesthesia are necessary.
