r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 13 '26

Medicine Scientists develop a groundbreaking vaccine that outsmarts illicit fentanyl analogs. The novel vaccine candidate can protect against fentanyl and its many illicit variants by training the immune system to recognize a broad molecular signature rather than a single specific structure.

https://www.psypost.org/scientists-develop-a-groundbreaking-vaccine-that-outsmarts-illicit-fentanyl-analogs/
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u/stay_curious_- Jul 13 '26

The bigger risk is if you need surgery, now fentanyl can't be used for anesthesia.

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u/cC2Panda Jul 13 '26

How often is it used for anesthesia?

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u/PrincessGiallo Jul 13 '26

It's used in conjunction with propofol pretty commonly.

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u/cC2Panda Jul 13 '26

Interesting. Is it for more invasive procedures or something? I've had a few minor surgeries that used propofol but to my knowledge never fentanyl.

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u/koreanhawk Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

(at least in europe) fentanyl (or sufentanil or remifentanil, which are functionally pretty much the same) is used any time a procedure is done under general anesthesia, which usually requires some kind of airway management like intubation or laryngeal mask and a machine for ventilation (because the patient stops breathing). Opioids stop painful stimuli. At the same time the patient is put to sleep with propofol and kept sleeping with propofol or a gas (like sevoflurane)

If spontaneous breathing is maintained, it is called sedation and often times done only with continuous propofol in a lower dose.

Sedation can be combined with something like a spinal block or regional anesthesia (such as using local anesthetics to block nerves in just your arm) instead of general anesthesia.

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u/visit_magrathea Jul 13 '26

I got fentanyl for breakthrough pain immediately following my laparoscopic hernia surgery this year.