Sedatives for thoracic trauma patients
In this dvm360® interview, Dr Bryce Dooley discusses effective drug options for these patients in excruciating pain
In a dvm360® interview, Bryce Dooley, DVM, MS, DACAA, faculty for the Directions in Veterinary Medicine (DIVM) symposium in Miami, Florida, provides expert insight on sedatives to administer to thoracic trauma patients.
The following is a partial transcript of the video.
Bryce Dooley, DVM, MS, DACAA: So for me, if I have a thoracic trauma patient, things I'm going to reach for in order for sedating for different diagnostics, different therapeutics, because we don't want to stress these patients out, I'm going to probably reach for a low dose of an alpha-2 agonist like dexmedetomidine. It can provide really nice anxiety relief. It has good analgesic properties, but importantly, it maintains the patient's ability to ventilate, and it doesn't depress the respiratory centers in the brain the same way that a big dose of an opioid would.
