The conscious sedation is a fast and safe option to perform intracavitary brachytherapy in carcinoma cervix patients: An institutional experience

Purpose: To know the complications of conscious sedation in cervical cancer patients treated with cobalt (CO60) based Intracavitary brachytherapy (ICRT) and to assess pain on visual analogue scale (VAS). Materials and Method: Cobalt intracavitary brachytherapy application was performed with conscious sedation in 40 carcinoma cervix patients and post-procedural pain was assessed with VAS at every 30 minutes interval for six hours along with other complications. Result: Pain was well controlled (mean VAS 4.5) in all patients with maximum VAS 10 and tramodol was received as rescue analgesic. Common complication was grade 1 & 2 bradycardia in 8 patients; and grade 1 hypertension in 6 applications; no patients found Gr 3 or 4 hypertension, Hypotension in 11 Patients (Gr1 in 7). Conclusions: Conscious sedation is a fast and safe option to perform intracavitary brachytherapy applications (Cobalt 60) in the patients of cervix cancer.