Danish medical journalMay 3, 2012

Sedation in Intensive Care Units

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗

Updated Mar 22, 2026

Abstract

Patients who received no sedation during mechanical ventilation had 4.2 more days without mechanical ventilation compared to those who received sedation.

The no sedation group experienced a reduction in ICU length of stay by 9.7 days.
Total hospital length of stay was decreased by 24 days in the no sedation group.
Increased urine output was observed in patients receiving no sedation compared to those who were sedated.
A lower percentage of patients in the no sedation group were classified with renal impairment compared to the sedated group.
No differences were found in long-term psychological outcomes, such as PTSD and depression, between the two groups.

Simplified

Standard treatment of critically ill patients undergoing mechanical ventilation is continuous sedation. This standard treatment to all patients has been greatly challenged over the last decade. At the general intensive care department at Odense University hospital the standard treatment has been no sedation. The general impression has been that this reduces time in mechanical ventilation and reduces complications such as acute renal failure. It has not been the impression that this treatment increased the risk of long term psychological problems compared to standard treatment with sedation. The "no-sedation" method has however never been described in the literature or tested in a prospective randomized trial.

Sedation in Intensive Care Units

Abstract

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