Mise au point sur l’utilisation du GammaOH en anesthésie–réanimation

The COVID-19 epidemic wave of March 2020 and the influx of critical patients requiring mechanical ventilation and sedation-analgesia has put the supply of hypnotic drugs under strain. In response to this problem, the French health authorities massively imported Gamma-OH, the use of which had become exceptional. This hypnotic of slow kinetics has an excellent haemodynamic and respiratory tolerance at the cost of notable metabolic side effects requiring regular monitoring of the ionogram and acid-base status. Because of this pharmacological profile, its extensive use in intensive care can only be recommended in health crisis situations where conventional sedatives must be spared. Its prescription as a co-sedative must then be of short duration (ideally less than 72 hours) and accompanied by a close control of the depth of sedation and metabolic side effects. If for many this drug is a part of the history of anaesthesia and intensive care, its use, although rare, still exists in war medicine, in disaster medicine and in burn treatment centers.