Sedation

Nonsedation or Light Sedation in Critically Ill, Mechanically Ventilated Patients (NONSEDA, 2020)
This trial did not include neurological patients, but in non-neurological patients showed no clear benefit to patients assigned no sedation compared with those who were assigned to light sedation with daily interruption, with teh same number of ICU and ventilator-free days, and the same number of days free from coma. If anything there was a trend to higher mortality in the nonsedation group (42.4% vs 37.0%, p=0.65) and a trend towards more thromboembolic events in the sedation group (2.8% vs 0.3%).

Propofol
There is a significant risk of hypertriglyceridemia and lipase elevation in prolonged propofol sedation. One study showed that using electronic health records for notifications to send triglyceride and lipase levels was effective at getting them to send the tests, and led to faster discontinuation of propofol in patients with triglycerides ≥ 500 mg/dL and/or lipase ≥ 60 IU/L.