Gut Liver.  2014 Jan;8(1):7-12.

Delayed Flumazenil Injection after Endoscopic Sedation Increases Patient Satisfaction Compared with Immediate Flumazenil Injection

• Chung HJ
• Bang BW
• Kim HG
• Kwon KS
• Shin YW
• Jeong S
• Lee DH
• Park SG

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
Flumazenil was administered after the completion of endoscopy under sedation to reduce recovery time and increase patient safety. We evaluated patient satisfaction after endoscopy under sedation according to the timing of a postprocedural flumazenil injection.
METHODS
In total, 200 subjects undergoing concurrent colonoscopy and upper endoscopy while sedated with midazolam and meperidine were enrolled in our investigation. We randomly administered 0.3 mg of flumazenil either immediately or 15 minutes after the endoscopic procedure. A postprocedural questionnaire and next day telephone interview were conducted to assess patient satisfaction.
RESULTS
Flumazenil injection timing did not affect the time spent in the recovery room when comparing the two groups of patients. However, the subjects in the 15 minutes injection group were more satisfied with undergoing endoscopy under sedation than the patients in the immediate injection group according to the postprocedural survey (p=0.019). However, no difference in overall satisfaction, memory, or willingness to undergo a future endoscopy was observed between the two groups when the telephone survey was conducted on the following day.
CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated that a delayed flumazenil injection after endoscopic sedation increased patient satisfaction without prolonging recovery time, even though the benefit of the delayed flumazenil injection did not persist into the following day.

Keyword

Colonoscopy; Flumazenil; Midazolam; Patient satisfaction

MeSH Terms

Adult
Anesthesia Recovery Period
Endoscopy/adverse effects
Female
Flumazenil/*administration & dosage
GABA Modulators/*administration & dosage
Humans
Male
Memory/drug effects
Middle Aged
Pain/epidemiology
*Patient Satisfaction
Prospective Studies
Time Factors
Treatment Outcome
Flumazenil
GABA Modulators