Opioid-induced ventilatory impairment
Educational use only. Not clinically reviewed68-year-old man for Total knee arthroplasty. About 7 simulated minutes.
What you will practise
- Recognize advancing sedation and depressed ventilation before oxygen saturation becomes the only signal.
- Keep the airway patent and support ventilation while definitive reversal is prepared.
- Hold further opioid instead of chasing a pain score during advancing sedation.
- Record patient-specific naloxone titration intent without treating one reversal as the end of monitoring.
- Reassess respiratory rate, tidal volume, carbon dioxide, and oxygenation together.
Review and sources
Not clinically reviewed. No clinician has signed this scenario.
- Levy N, et al. An international multidisciplinary consensus statement on the prevention of opioid-related harm in adult surgical patients. Anaesthesia. 2021;76:520-536. PMID 33027841.
- Jansen SC, Dahan A. Opioid-induced respiratory depression. BJA Education. 2024;24:100-106. PMID 38375496.
Open Sim Lab is an educational simulator, not for clinical use. It is not a clinical decision-support tool, not a dosing calculator, and is not validated for any decision affecting a real patient.