Intravenous (non-opioid) anesthesia

Intravenous anesthetics are used for induction and maintenance of anesthesia (eg, total intravenous anesthesia), as well as for sedation during local anesthesia (ie, regional anesthetic techniques and monitored anesthesia care [MAC]). The most commonly used IV anesthetics are propofol and thiopental. In addition, methohexital is used for ECT and etomidate is used in hemodynamically unstable patients. Finally, ketamine is increasingly used as an adjuvant to propofol and thiopental for induction of anesthesia, and for sedation-analgesia as an alternative to opioid analgesics.