Conscious sedation is a state of sleepiness induced with medications; it is a way to both provide pain relief and relax patients undergoing a variety of minor surgical or dental procedures. Examples of procedures that may use conscious sedation, as listed by MedlinePlus, include colonoscopies, breast biopsies and dental reconstructive surgeries. While conscious sedation is generally very well-tolerated, certain side effects may be noticed for a few hours after the procedure is done.
Drowsiness
Part of conscious sedation involves medication that is given to make the patient undergoing the medical procedure feel very sleepy. The medication is either given through a small tube, called a catheter, that is inserted into a blood vein, or is given orally. The drowsiness may be significant enough that the patient actually falls asleep during the procedure. However, she will still be alert enough to respond to her name being called and to interact, if needed, with the healthcare providers who are doing the procedure. After the procedure, the patient will be awake and even talking, but may continue to feel sleepy for several hours after the conscious sedation was given. Because of this, patients who undergo conscious sedation are not allowed to drive home from the procedure. The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, or AANA, adds that operating dangerous machinery or making important decisions should be postponed for at least 24 hours after receiving conscious sedation medications.
Memory Loss
MedlinePlus notes that a common side effect is that patients will not remember the procedure itself, or will have only vague recollections of the experience. The AANA suggests that in rare cases, patients may actually remember the procedure in an unpleasant way. However, more commonly, the sedation will cause some memory loss of events around the procedure. Unlike the drowsiness, this aspect of the sedation may not go away -- patients may never be able to truly remember what went on during their procedure. However, though the details of the medical procedure may always be fuzzy, conscious sedation should not cause any long-term memory issues.
Nausea and Vomiting
In some patients, the medications used to induce the state known as conscious sedation may result in nausea or even vomiting after the procedure requiring the sedation has been completed. Because conscious sedation is achieved by giving a combination of different medications, it is possible that patients may react to one of the medications by feeling nauseated and vomiting. Fortunately, this unpleasant side effect is quite rare.
