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ing on doses of anesthetics required for adequate sedation. For example, a
study in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology found that patients who
routinely use marijuana require substantially higher doses of propofol for sat-
isfactory induction when inserting a laryngeal mask (osmag.net/BF6kwN).
You want to stress to pot-smoking patients that the sooner they quit smoking
before surgery, the better, that each smoke-free day decreases their overall
risk of anesthesia-related complications. In fact, quitting just 12 hours before
surgery can make a difference. Ideally, however, patients should stop smok-
ing marijuana 8 weeks before surgery to improve their response to anesthe-
sia.
5. Which of these drugs is used to treat anxiety,
nausea or severe itching?
a. hydralazine b. hydroxyzine
Answer: b
This is one of my favorite examples of common Look Alike/Sound Alike
(LASA) drugs. Hydroxyzine is used to address anxiety, nausea or itching,
whereas hydralazine is an antihypertensive. These drugs have very differ-
ent uses, but they're easily confused because of their similar sounding
names. You always want to separate LASA medications in drug storage
areas to prevent potential misidentification issues. If you're dealing with
handwritten labels, use tall man lettering (writing part of a drug's name in
upper case letters: DOPamine, for example) or upper case lettering to
highlight distinctive syllables in similar looking drugs. With pre-printed
labels, you can color-code medications by classification: induction agents
in yellow, benzodiazepines in orange, muscle relaxants in fluorescent red,
narcotics in blue, vasopressors and hypotensive agents in violet, and local
anesthetics in gray.
