Methylene Blue

For some types of surgery, patients may receive local injections of a dye called methylene blue to highlight various body tissues. When concentrated at the injection site, the dye is obvious as a deep blue stain. However, a bluish tint may spread to other areas of the body (such as the face), imparting a pale, grayish appearance to the skin.

Immediately after surgery, the patient will recover under close monitoring of the PACU nurse (that's me). Often, my patients prefer to sleep through this period, which is perfectly fine and encouraged. Patients dyed gray by methylene blue may, however, look as if they are very sick and unresponsive when they are just resting. This has occasionally elicited concern in passing surgeons and comments from coworkers in the PACU setting.




As you can see, our PACU patients are well-monitored by everyone, not just their primary nurse.