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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So today, I want to answer a frequently asked question, which is, “How does an induced coma benefit your loved one’s condition or treatment in ICU?” So today, we’re diving into the intriguing world once again of induced coma. You might have heard about this medical procedure before, but have you ever wondered how it actually benefits someone’s condition or treatment, especially in intensive care? Buckle up because we’re about to embark on a journey of knowledge and discovery today.

Understanding induced comas, here are the basics. First things first, let’s get acquainted with what an induced coma is all about. An induced coma, also known as a medically induced coma or therapeutic coma, is a carefully controlled and monitored state of unconsciousness. It’s not something you experience after a wild night out. Rather, it’s a medical intervention employed by healthcare professionals predominantly in intensive care to manage critical situations, but it’s also being used obviously in operating theaters and operating rooms to control surgeries.

So, why do doctors use induced comas? Induced comas aren’t just used for fancies. They serve a vital purpose in the realm of medicine. Sometimes the patient’s condition can be so severe or life threatening that it becomes necessary to put them into an induced coma. The procedure allows to protect the patient’s brain, body, and also airway while they undergo intensive treatment or surgery.

It is predominantly actually to protect not only someone’s body but also to protect the airway. So, let’s just say a condition becomes life threatening and someone can’t breathe or their heart stops or whatever, then airway protection is going to be pretty critical, very crucial, and that’s when you need to start intubating someone. Put a breathing tube in their throat and then put them in an induced coma to manage the discomfort of such procedure.

Now, let’s explore the benefits of induced comas. Now that we know why induced comas are used, let’s dig deeper into the juicy details of how they benefit the patient’s condition, or treatment. Strap on your seat belts, my friends, because this is where it gets interesting.

Number 1, reduce brain activity. One of the primary benefits of inducing a coma is that it reduces brain activity. By placing the patient in a deep state of unconsciousness, doctors can help protect the brain from potential damage or inflammation. This lowered brain activity gives the body a chance to heal and recover without any additional stress on the brain.

This is particularly important when it comes to neurological conditions such as TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), stroke, seizures, anoxic or hypoxic brain injury. That’s when it comes specifically important to reduce brain activity.

But it’s also important sometimes to again reduce brain activity when there’s not a neurological condition because you don’t want a patient to be agitated during inducing a coma, during a critical illness. That’s probably the last thing you need. So, keeping things calm is very important.

So, reducing brain activity is often a function to calm everything down when someone is experiencing a critical illness so their body can calm down, stress down, and activate probably the calmer senses such as the parasympathetic nervous system that things are staying calm.

Next, an induced coma facilitates critical treatment, of course. Induced comas can be a game changer when it comes to critical treatments or surgeries. By placing the patient in a controlled and unconscious state, doctors gain better access to the body and can perform complex procedures with enhanced precision. It’s like having a surgeon work on a car engine when the engine isn’t running, everything is more stable and easier to manage.

Again, that’s specifically true, like when we go from head to toe, very true when it comes to the brain, very true when it comes to the to airway management, very true when it comes to managing unstable hemodynamic situations such as low blood pressure, high blood pressure, high heart rate, low heart rate, and anything in between including high temperatures, low temperatures. Any extreme condition in intensive care is much easier to be controlled when patients are in an induced coma.

Next, minimizing seizures. Like I mentioned before, seizures can wreak havoc on a patient’s body and worsen their overall condition. Fortunately, induced comas can help mitigate these seizures. By reducing brain activity and stabilizing electrical impulses, doctors can effectively manage and minimize the occurrence of seizures. It’s like hitting the pause button on an unruly orchestra of electrical signals.

Absolutely true. For example, when it comes to seizures, you definitely do not want patients to have ongoing uncontrolled seizures in intensive care. Like I just said, it can wreak havoc with a patient’s body and can cause irreversible brain damage if it’s not being controlled.

Next, allowing time for healing. Sometimes the best medicine is simply giving the body time to heal itself. Induced comas provide an environment where the body can focus all its energy on the healing process by minimizing external stimuli and allowing the patient to rest and induce coma, creates an optimal setting for the body to repair and regenerate damaged tissues and other conditions.

Whilst I agree with that sort of statement, there is definitely a side effect of that. The side effect of an induced coma is that the longer it goes on, the more deconditioning the patient experiences, i.e., muscle wastage, muscle weakness, potentially weight loss, and then it takes time to rebuild the deconditioning if it’s ever possible at all.

There’s plenty of patients in ICU in prolonged induced comas where the ICU says, “Yeah, we can keep doing that but if we keep doing it, what’s the process of recovery? What’s the process of rehabilitation once the patient is out of the induced coma?” So, we got to look at the side effects.

So, we’ve just journeyed through the fascinating realm of induced comas and discover how they can benefit the patient’s condition or treatment. I did talk about the side effects and from reducing brain activity and facilitating clinical procedures to preventing oxygen deprivation.

So, whilst I believe, we’ve given you a good overview here. I also want to look at alternatives. So, I’ve done a podcast interview with Kali Dayton not too long ago. Kali actually gives a different perspective about induced coma. Kali is a nurse practitioner in the United States with critical care experience. Kali says that induced comas for intubated patients are not necessary. I encourage you to check out this podcast because it is important that we keep alive a healthy debate about what approaches work and what approaches don’t work. You will see that Kali will say in the interview, “Recovery and rehabilitation for patients that are not in induced coma for ventilation and breathing tubes have a much better recovery and a much faster recovery.” So go and check out that interview.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com and call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

Also, have a look at our membership for families in intensive care where you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in a membership area and via email and we answer all questions, intensive care and Intensive Care at Home related.

I also offer 1:1 consulting and advocacy for families in intensive care at intensivecarehotline.com. I do speak to doctors and nurses directly. I represent you in family meetings with the ICU team. I ask questions that you haven’t even considered asking, which will give you a real edge when dealing with intensive care teams that are probably not even telling you half of the story of what’s really going on because you don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know what questions to ask. You don’t know what to look for. You don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. So, that’s where I can help you with very fast.

We also provide medical record reviews for patients in intensive care in real time. If you need a second opinion in real time, please contact us as well. If you need a medical record review after intensive care, please contact us as well. We provide medical record reviews after intensive care as well. If you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you’re simply suspecting medical negligence, please contact us as well.

Now, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, click the like button, click the notification bell, and comment below what you want to see next or what questions and insights you have from this video and share the video with your friends and families.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.