Best evidence topic report. Procedural sedation for cardioversion.

A short-cut review was conducted to establish whether any of the available drugs used for procedural sedation in patients with tachydysrhythmias are safer or more effective than the alternatives. In all, 135 papers were found using the reported searches, of which 7 presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these best papers are tabulated. It is concluded that propofol, methohexital, thiopentone and etomidate all seem to be good choices.