{"id":618069,"date":"2026-09-08T09:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618069\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T09:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:44:15","slug":"dexmedetomidine-reduces-analgesic-use-after-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618069\/","title":{"rendered":"Dexmedetomidine Reduces Analgesic Use After Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DEXMEDETOMIDINE reduced epidural analgesic use after VATS lobectomy while improving early pain control and patient satisfaction.<\/p>\n<p>Dexmedetomidine After VATS Lobectomy<\/p>\n<p>The prospective, randomized, double-blind study enrolled 68 patients undergoing elective video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) lobectomy. Of these, 61 were included in the final analysis, comprising 31 patients who received dexmedetomidine and 30 who received saline.<\/p>\n<p>All patients underwent standardized general anesthesia combined with thoracic epidural blockade. The dexmedetomidine group received an intravenous loading dose of 1.0 \u03bcg\/kg over 10 minutes, followed by an infusion of 0.5 \u03bcg\/kg\/hour until 1 hour after surgery. The control group received a volume-matched saline infusion.<\/p>\n<p>Patient characteristics, anesthesia duration, surgery duration, one-lung ventilation duration, and intraoperative ventilatory parameters were comparable between groups.<\/p>\n<p>Epidural Analgesic Requirements Declined<\/p>\n<p>Cumulative patient-controlled epidural analgesia consumption was significantly lower with dexmedetomidine across the study period. At 1 hour, mean consumption was 9.58 mL with dexmedetomidine versus 18.8 mL with saline. The difference remained significant at 6, 24, and 48 hours.<\/p>\n<p>By 48 hours, cumulative consumption reached 57.61 mL in the dexmedetomidine group and 73.1 mL in the control group. Patients receiving dexmedetomidine also required fewer rescue analgesic boluses in the post-anesthesia care unit.<\/p>\n<p>Overall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/en-us\/amj\/dermatology\/news\/postoperative-analgesia-in-dermatologic-surgery-shows-low-adverse-events\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">postoperative pain<\/a> scores did not differ significantly between groups across 48 hours. However, pain measured using the visual analog scale was lower with dexmedetomidine at 1 hour after surgery, with scores of 5.52 versus 6.3.<\/p>\n<p>Intraoperative rocuronium requirements were also lower among patients receiving dexmedetomidine. Patient satisfaction was significantly higher in this group.<\/p>\n<p>Cardiovascular Effects Require Monitoring<\/p>\n<p>Bradycardia at 1 hour after surgery and hypotension at 1 hour after one-lung ventilation occurred more frequently with dexmedetomidine. Heart rate and systolic blood pressure were also lower than in the control group.<\/p>\n<p>Rates of nausea, vomiting, shivering, and respiratory depression did not differ significantly between groups. Other measured vital parameters were also comparable.<\/p>\n<p>The findings support perioperative dexmedetomidine as a potential analgesic-sparing adjunct for patients receiving combined epidural and general anesthesia during VATS lobectomy. However, the increased frequency of transient bradycardia and hypotension highlights the need for careful hemodynamic monitoring.<\/p>\n<p>Reference<br \/>Lee D et al. Effect of Dexmedetomidine on Postoperative Analgesia After Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Lobectomy Surgery. Int J Med Sci. 2026;23(9):2874\u20132883.<\/p>\n<p>Featured Image: Drazen on Adobe Stock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEXMEDETOMIDINE reduced epidural analgesic use after VATS lobectomy while improving early pain control and patient satisfaction. Dexmedetomidine After&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-618069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}