ABSTRACT
Finally, there may be medication-related problems. These can range from known side-effects of drugs to idiopathic reactions, such as anaphylaxis. There is always a risk that the sedation medications chosen may interact with drugs that the patient is already taking (or with each other, if combinations of sedative drugs are used), producing exaggerated or unanticipated effects. There is also the possibility of drug error, which can result in accidental under-dosage, accidental over-dosage, or the administration of the wrong drug altogether. It is therefore recommended that sedationists should draw up and mix the drugs they are to use themselves, and that every syringe
should be properly labelled. The UK has recently adopted a consistent colourcoded system for labelling of anaesthetic drug syringes9,10 (see Table 1.4). If such labels are not available, the sedationist should fi nd another method of ensuring that each drug in each syringe is clearly identifi able.
