SSOD20 - Office Anesthesia and Illegal Drug Use

Substance abuse is rising across the United States, affecting patients’ respiratory, cardiovascular, central nervous, renal and hepatic systems. Patients present with diverse clinical signs, including cardiopulmonary and central nervous system excitation/depression and electrolyte imbalance. Anesthesia providers must manage the physiologic changes and anesthetic implications of drug abuse to tailor safe anesthetic plans for these high-risk patients. However, guidelines for managing these patients in office-based anesthesia settings are limited. This session addresses concerns related to new anesthetic agents, drug metabolism physiology and anesthesia provision challenges for this patient group.