• Åse Lodenius, Kathleen J Maddison, Brad K Lawther, Mika Scheinin, Lars I Eriksson, Peter R Eastwood, David R Hillman, Fagerlund Malin Jonsson MJ, and Jennifer H Walsh.
• From the Function Perioperative Medicine and Intensive Care, Karolinska University Hospital, and the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Section for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden (A.L., L.I.E., M.J.F.) the West Australian Sleep Disorders Research Institute, Department of Pulmonary Physiology and Sleep Medicine, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia (K.J.M., P.R.E., D.R.H., J.H.W.) the Centre for Sleep Science, School of Human Sciences (K.J.M., P.R.E., D.R.H., J.H.W.) the Department of Anaesthesia, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (B.K.L.), Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, and Unit of Clinical Pharmacology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland (M.S.).
• Anesthesiology. 2019 Nov 1; 131 (5): 962-973.

BackgroundDexmedetomidine is a sedative promoted as having minimal impact on ventilatory drive or upper airway muscle activity. However, a trial recently demonstrated impaired ventilatory drive and induction of apneas in sedated volunteers. The present study measured upper airway collapsibility during dexmedetomidine sedation and related it to propofol.MethodsTwelve volunteers (seven female) entered this nonblinded, randomized crossover study. Upper airway collapsibility (pharyngeal critical pressure) was measured during low and moderate infusion rates of propofol or dexmedetomidine. A bolus dose was followed by low (0.5 μg · kg · h or 42 μg · kg · min) and moderate (1.5 μg · kg · h or 83 μg · kg · min) rates of infusion of dexmedetomidine and propofol, respectively.ResultsComplete data sets were obtained from nine volunteers (median age [range], 46 [23 to 66] yr; body mass index, 25.4 [20.3 to 32.4] kg/m). The Bispectral Index score at time of pharyngeal critical pressure measurements was 74 ± 10 and 65 ± 13 (mean difference, 9; 95% CI, 3 to 16; P = 0.011) during low infusion rates versus 57 ± 16 and 39 ± 12 (mean difference, 18; 95% CI, 8 to 28; P = 0.003) during moderate infusion rates of dexmedetomidine and propofol, respectively. A difference in pharyngeal critical pressure during sedation with dexmedetomidine or propofol could not be shown at either the low or moderate infusion rate. Median (interquartile range) pharyngeal critical pressure was -2.0 (less than -15 to 2.3) and 0.9 (less than -15 to 1.5) cm H2O (mean difference, 0.9; 95% CI, -4.7 to 3.1) during low infusion rates (P = 0. 595) versus 0.3 (-9.2 to 1.4) and -0.6 (-7.7 to 1.3) cm H2O (mean difference, 0.0; 95% CI, -2.1 to 2.1; P = 0.980) during moderate infusion of dexmedetomidine and propofol, respectively. A strong linear relationship between pharyngeal critical pressure during dexmedetomidine and propofol sedation was evident at low (r = 0.82; P = 0.007) and moderate (r = 0.90; P < 0.001) infusion rates.ConclusionsThese observations suggest that dexmedetomidine sedation does not inherently protect against upper airway obstruction.

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