Patient-controlled sedation (PCS) has been used during many different surgical procedures, both alone and as an adjunct to local or regional anaesthesia. Sedation with an admixture of propofol and alfentanil during transvaginal oocyte retrieval has been used successfully in this unit and this study was performed to assess the degree of patient acceptance of patient-controlled sedation, as other studies have indicated that self-administration of sedation may confer additional benefits on the patient, unrelated to the choice of sedation agent.

An admixture of 50 mL propofol 1% with alfentanil 2 mg was loaded into a Graseby 3300 patient-controlled analgesia pump and administered as increments of 0.3 mL with a zero lock-out interval. This method of sedation provided safe and highly satisfactory sedation for this group of patients with 55 of 56 patients indicating that they would opt for this type of sedation again. There was a very low incidence of over-sedation, and this sedation method is likely to produce a relaxed and co-operative patient for a wide variety of surgical procedures.