New Advanced Sedation Techniques offered at some Abortion Clinics have the advantage of not requiring a driver or companion.  This is important for women who wish to have the ultimate in privacy and confidentiality.  The reason is because these state-of-the art medications are in and out of the body within 15 minutes after administration and there are no lingering side effects such as weakness, wooziness, headaches, or blurred vision. Old-fashioned medications such as Valium, Versed, Morphine, Demerol, Fentanyl, Nubain and Stadol remain in the body for up to 24 to 48 hours.  Therefore driving and operating heavy machinery during this time can be hazardous and dangerous.  The new and advanced medications are more potent for reducing pain, discomfort and anxiety than the older sedatives.  Abortion procedures less than 12 weeks ordinarily take 2 to 4 minutes to perform on patients less than 12 weeks gestation.    Performing an abortion using Advanced IV Sedation consists of obtaining blood and urine, obtaining blood pressure, pulse and respiratory rate.  The patient's height and weight are determined.  This is followed by an oxygen saturation monitor being placed on the patient's finger or earlobe which monitors the heart rate and the percentage of oxygen in the blood.  This should be kept above 88% during the surgical procedure.  A small butterfly needle is placed in a vein in the patients hand or forearm.  A small amount of medication is given at a time which reduces anxiety and allows patients to not only become relaxed and comfortable, but helps to assure that a patient is not sensitive or allergic to the medication.  Patients generally continue responding verbally. The speech may become noticeably slower.  They may well stop talking but should be able to respond to verbal instructions.  The surgical procedure is then performed without the patient remembering or feeling any pain or discomfort.  Patients are monitored continuously to determine the level of sedation and are given more if required.  This method produces a safe and painless procedure which is provided in an environment of kindness and compassion. Before the physician leaves the room, the patient is fully conscious and able to engage in coherent conversation. When the patient is fully awake and there is no prospect of respiratory depression (stop breathing), the patient is escorted to the recovery room to observe for bleeding, a sudden drop in blood pressure or an elevation in the heart rate.  One or more of these observations could be an indication of internal bleeding. The recovery room is staffed by supportive and caring medical personnel who will perform a uterine massage which helps to reduce the swollen and distended uterus back to its normal size. Within 45 minutes patients are released and able to drive themselves home without any enduring side effects from receiving the advanced technology narcotic and anxiolytic pain medications.

ADVANTAGES OF CUTTING EDGE IV SEDATION TECHNIQUE

With the new highly developed IV Sedation Technology, patients don't have to cease eating or drinking after midnight before the day of their procedure. Numerous medical studies indicate that there are fewer problems with eating and drinking up to 4 hours previous to the operation and patients are able to drink clear liquids up to 2 hours prior to the surgery. It has been revealed that there are extra liquids in the stomach when patients discontinue eating or drinking at midnight than if they stop drinking two hours before the surgical procedure. Patients who are permitted to drink up until two hours before surgery encounter a reduced amount of unease and strain.  The side effects and difficulty linked to lack of fluids and abnormal blood sugars (low or high) are practically non-existent. Furthermore, to reduce patient discomfort during a surgical abortion procedure, the Advanced IV Sedation medications allow a rapid onset of sleepiness and reduced stress and apprehension which can occur prior, during or after surgery. This has been studied and described extensively in medical journals and is now accepted by Anesthesiologists for outpatient surgical procedures such as abortion. The Advanced IV Sedation Technology medications work similarly to prevailing narcotics, but with fewer risks and objectionable side effects to patients.