A study found that geriatric patients who are undergoing gastrointestinal procedures often receive unnecessarily high doses of anesthesia at induction, according to a Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News report.
The study findings were reported at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Researchers analyzed the anesthesia records of 799 adults who underwent non-emergent, ambulatory gastrointestinal procedures over a six-week period in 2013.
Researchers recorded the induction doses of propofol and fentanyl, and looked for changes in mean arterial pressure within 10 minutes of induction. Anesthetic doses and changes in mean arterial pressure were compared across age groups.
The study found that the dosing of fentanyl was not different for different age groups, which shows that it is not being reduced for elderly patients to a dose that is appropriate. Propofol dosage, on the other hand, was significantly different across age groups. Despite this, however, older patients experienced greater drops in mean arterial pressure, according to the report.
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