Use in the ICU
Long term sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU) is routinely used for intubated patients, especially those with abnormal brain function due to traumatic brain injury. For these patients, rapid and reliable assessment of mental status is necessary in order to ascertain the stage of the disease and possible response to therapy. An exhaled breath propofol monitor in this setting would be useful to determine if poor mentation resulted from the disease process or from propofol sedation. This determination would guide further diagnostics and therapeutic interventions. For example, deterioration in mentation with minimal sedation documented by a breath detection system would likely indicate deteriorating brain status and the need for a computerized tomogram of the brain. In contrast, poor mentation with high propofol concentrations would probably cause one to suspect oversedation and require appropriate adjustments in the infusion rate. In any event, use of propofol can be coupled to other indices used to assess pulmonary function in the ICU and to capnometry that is now routinely employed in intubated and ventilated patients.