Very often, patients receive sedative medication before a diagnostic, therapeutic, or surgical procedure to help them relax, keep them calm, and to relieve them from pain. This is called procedural sedation. During procedural (mild to moderate) sedation, a patient is first given a pain-relief medication (analgesic) and then a medication to help him/her relax and keep him/her calm (sedative). Propofol is the drug commonly used for sedation because it releases immediately into the blood stream and causes fast sedation. AQUAVAN (fospropofol disodium) is made as a slow release version of propofol, allowing for fast sedation and possibly faster recovery and discharge.