The use of propofol in palliative medicine - Discussion

Occasionally, terminally ill patients with severe agitated dilirium are extremely difficult to sedate, either becoming too deeply sedated when undisturbed or severely agitated when disturbed. This situation occurs even with the short-acting benzodiazepines such as midazolam. This paper describes the we of a low-dose infusion of the anesthetic agent propofol (Diprivan, Zenica), which has a very short length of action and allows the depth of sedation to be easily controlled from minute to minute.