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Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Background/aim: Patients experience moderate-to-severe pain, especially in the first days after lumbar disc surgery. Poorly controlled pain in the postoperative period negatively affects patient outcomes. Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective α2 adrenoceptor agonist with demonstrated analgesic efficacy. However, conflicting results have been reported in the current literature regarding the efficacy of dexmedetomidine in this surgery. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that dexmedetomidine safely improves pain scores and reduces opioid consumption in lumbar microdiscectomy.

Materials and methods: Medical records of patients who underwent lumbar microdiscectomy with general anesthesia between January 2023 and October 2023 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into two groups as those who did not receive dexmedetomidine infusion (Group A) and those who received dexmedetomidine infusion (Group B). Patients in Group B received a loading dose of 1 μg/kg dexmedetomidine followed by a maintenance infusion of 0.5 μg/kg/h. The primary outcome of our study was postoperative fentanyl consumption at the 24th h. Secondary outcomes of our study included need for fentanyl in the recovery unit, postoperative pain scores at the 2nd, 6th, 12th, and 24th h and fentanyl consumption at the 2nd, 6th, and 12th h and perioperative complications.

Results: A total of 68 patients were included in our study, 34 patients in each group. The number of patients requiring fentanyl in the recovery unit and the dose of fentanyl administered were similar in both groups (p = 0.223 and p = 0.373, respectively). There was no statistical difference in the pain scores, opioid consumption, and perioperative complications at the 2nd, 6th, 12th, and 24th h after surgery in patients receiving dexmedetomidine compared to the control group (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Intraoperative dexmedetomidine infusion did not reduce postoperative pain intensity and opioid consumption in patientsundergoing lumbar microdiscectomy under general anesthesia.

Author ORCID Identifier

SİBEL ÇATALCA: 0000-0002-8899-1106

ÖZLEM ÖZMETE: 0000-0001-5845-699X

NUMAN BERK: 0000-0002-5309-6742

SONER ÇİVİ: 0000-0002-1055-5152

EMRE DURDAĞ: 0000-0001-6939-5491

CANER İNCEKAŞ: 0000-0001-9019-423X

NESRİN BOZDOĞAN ÖZYILKAN: 0000-0002-4973-8132

DOI

10.55730/1300-0144.5991

Keywords

Dexmedetomidine, general anesthesia, lumbar microdiscectomy, postoperative analgesia

First Page

470

Last Page

481

Publisher

Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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