Anesthesia

[Flutterby 88]

I am having an endoscopy/colonoscopy tomorrow and the anesthesia to be used is Diprivan/Propofol. I am wondering if it will affect my MDS 5q- in any way.

[Neil Cuadra]

I am having an endoscopy/colonoscopy tomorrow and the anesthesia to be used is Diprivan/Propofol. I am wondering if it will affect my MDS 5q- in any way.

This study (http://ekja.org/search.php?where=aview&id=10.4097/kjae.2005.49.5.679&code=1011KJAE&vmode=PUBREADER) found that Propofol did not have a "myelodepressive effect" when used for anesthesia of oncologic patients. Studies with other focuses found minimally negative effects (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23380427) (when used in combination with inhaled sevoflurane) or even positive effects (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590245/).

I don't think that the eHealthMe website is always a reliable source, since they use automated techniques to gather data, but for what it's worth they claim no bone marrow problems for people who take Propofol (http://www.ehealthme.com/ds/propofol/bone%20marrow%20depression/).

The other evidence I know of is personal. My wife's hematologist teamed with an anesthesiologist who used Propofol during several of my wife's bone marrow biopsies, with no detectable effect on her marrow.

Despite this evidence that propofol is safe on bone marrow, including your 5q- condition, you should make sure your anesthesiologist is aware of your MDS.