I have lately spent a lot of time renewing my lectures for the next year, and one thing that I have increased from the last year is (of course), the prodrug design with everyday examples. One classic example of successfully improved solubility is the powerful, fast-acting intravenous (IV) anesthetic, propofol, primarily used to induce and maintain general anesthesia for surgery, and its water-soluble prodrug, phospropofol. Despite the success, I had to face propofol and its soil-based emulsion this spring. The surgical nurse wanted to calm the situation for my daughter and told her that she would be given a sleeping milk or "milk of amnesia" as they call it, by showing the syringe of white emulsion. I couldn't help myself, and I cried out, "Is that propofol?" and the whole staff in the surgery room turned towards me with big question marks on their faces. Afterwards, I heard that it was a relatively rare question in the surgery room, and the anesthesiologist wanted to clear up why I was so scared. And then I, of course, told him about the phospropofol, which I thought would already be a standard practise (obviously not), since it was approved by FDA almost 20 years ago. But I was also amazed to realize that he hadn't even heard about it. Then, I just simply concluded that I would prefer to have a clear solution in my veins. 😏 And after that, I wanted to take this example to my next year's class.
Source: https://e-safe-anaesthesia.org
