• Hirotsugu Kanda, Takayuki Kunisawa, Atsushi Kurosawa, Michio Nagashima, Akihiro Suzuki, Osamu Takahata, and Hiroshi Iwasaki.
• Department of Anesthesia, National Obihiro Hospital, Obihiro 080-8518.
• Masui. 2009 Dec 1;58(12):1496-500.

BackgroundAn anesthetic-sparing effect of dexmedetomidine has been shown in several studies. We investigated the effect of dexmedetomidine on anesthetic requirements in 24 patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery.MethodsPatients were randomly divided into two groups in which continuous infusion of dexmedetomidine was started before induction of anesthesia (DEX group, n = 12) or when closing the sternum (control group, n = 12). Dexmedetomidine was administered intravenously at 0.7 microg x kg(-1) x hr(-1) after a bolus infusion at 6.0 microg x kg(-1) x hr(-1) for 10 min. All patients received total intravenous anesthesia with propofol and fentanyl.ResultsMean effect-site concentration of propofol was significantly lower in the DEX group than in the control group (1.9 +/- 0.3 microg x ml(-1) vs 2.5 +/- 0.8 microg x ml(-1)). Mean effect-site concentration of fentanyl in the DEX group was significantly lower than that in the control group (1.93 +/- 0.41 ng x ml(-1) vs 2.67 +/- 0.70 ng x ml(-1).ConclusionsThe combined use of dexmedetomidine decreases anesthetic requirements in cardiovascular surgery.

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