Procedural Sedation and the Risk of Hypoxemia

Abstract

Background: Today's hospital care shows an increase in therapeutic and diagnostic procedures performed outside the operating room under procedural sedation, rather than in the operating room. Yet, despite this shift in attitudes, there is evident paucity of studies examining the nature of the interventions performed under procedural sedation. The primary objective of this study was the identification of interventions performed under sedation outside the operating room, focusing on those associated with hypoxemia below SpO 2 90%.