Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2024
Low-dose clonidine infusion to improve sleep in postoperative patients in the high-dependency unit. A randomised placebo-controlled single-centre trial.
Dexmedetomidine increases sleep and reduces delirium in postoperative patients, but it is expensive and requires a monitored environment. Clonidine, another α 2-agonist, is cheaper and is used safely for other purposes in wards. We assessed whether clonidine would improve sleep in postoperative high-dependency unit (HDU) patients. ⋯ Among postoperative elective surgical patients admitted to HDU, low-dose non-titrated clonidine, compared to placebo, was associated with longer and subjectively better-quality sleep.