methodone user under anethesia?

Question

My uncle, who is a recovering heroin addict/current methodone user is currently under anethesia at the hospital for double pnemonia. While there, his liver has shut down, and his kidneys have begun to as well. I asked the doctors if they were giving him methodone and they said they were giving him something else that worked like it. I don't believe them though. I'm wondering if it's possible that his situation has gotten worse due to methodone withdrawl combined with being under sedation. I might also add that they took him off the sedation medication almost two days ago but he has not woken up yet. They said they give him small doses of it now apparently. He would also be going through alcohol withdrawl. Could these factors have some sort of significance as to why things have gotten worse?

Answer 1

They are probably giving him morphine which works just like methadone.

They are also probably giving him midazolam or some similar medicine - which works just like the valium doctors use to treat alcohol withdrawal.

It is hard to know if a patient is withdrawing when they are unconscious from an anaesthetic or sedation, however in many cases sedation is in fact a treatment for withdrawal symptoms.

What we mostly do is we measure heart rate, blood pressure and temperature ... and if these rise, then they can be normalized by increasing the sedation medications. If the patient is light enough to be jittery - then this can be observed as well.

The fact that he hasn't woken up from the sedation after two days is more likely to reflect the ability of his liver to metabolize these medications.

Morphine and Midazolam can stick around for a long while and people with NORMAL livers can take 24-48 hrs to wake up after this. I'd guess your uncle doesn't have a normal liver - from what you write. This will lengthen the time it takes for him to wake up, but that's probably a good thing in his current state.

They are probably checking on the function of his liver (e.g. his INR clotting test and Liver Function Tests) and of this kidney (e.g. Urea and Creatinine levels, measuring urine output) and also his breathing (Finger tip Saturation probe, arterial blood gases).