Con: a general anesthesiologist with a certain skill set is qualified to provide services in the interventional cardiology and electrophysiology laboratory.

摘要

Other than delivering a safe anesthetic, the anesthetic goals in the EP and cardiac catheterization laboratory are vastly different from anesthetic goals in the cardiac operating rooms. Traditionally, patients undergoing a cardiac procedure are managed with large-dose narcotics and muscle relaxation. On the other hand, most procedures taking place in the EP laboratory are not typically that painful. Patients presenting for the EP laboratory have minimal analgesic requirements. Muscle relax-ants are better avoided, even if the patient is under general anesthesia, because they may interfere with the use of high output pacing to identify the phrenic nerves during ablation procedures.3 Ultra-short-acting narcotics such as remifentanil are especially appealing in the EP laboratory.