Brazilian journal of anesthesiology | 2021
The effect of two different doses of dexmedetomidine to prevent emergence agitation in children undergoing adenotonsillectomy:a randomized controlled trial.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE\nTo evaluate different doses of dexmedetomidine for the prevention of emergence agitation in children undergoing adenotonsillectomy.\n\n\nMETHOD\n130 children aged 3-10 years scheduled for adenotonsillectomy were randomly assigned to two groups. Anesthesia was induced with 0.5\u2009μg.kg-1 dexmedetomidine (DEX 0.5 group) or 1\u2009μg.kg-1 dexmedetomidine (DEX 1 group) at the beginning of surgery. Observers who recorded the data in the post-anesthesia care unit were blinded to the allocation. The primary outcome was the percentage of emergence agitation. The times to spontaneous breath, awake, extubate, and post anesthesia care unit stay were also recorded.\n\n\nRESULTS\n124 children were randomized into two groups. 5 children were excluded because of adverse events and dropout (DEX 0.5 group, n\u2009=\u200958; DEX 1 group, n\u2009=\u200962). No significant differences were noted in the percentage of emergence agitation between the two groups. The times to extubation(p\u2009=\u20090.003), awake and post-anesthesia care unit stay in DEX 0.5 group were shorter than those in DEX 1 group (p\u2009<\u2009 0.0001). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the time to spontaneous breath. Approximately 8% of patients in DEX 0.5 group and 18% patients in DEX 1 group presented low SpO2, showing a significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.043).\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\n0.5\u2009μg.kg-1 dexmedetomidine was equally effective as 1\u2009μg.kg-1 dexmedetomidine in preventing emergence agitation.\n\n\nTRIAL REGISTRATION\nThe trial is currently completed recruitment, registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (ID:NCT03760809). Inclusion began on 4 January, 2019.