Propofol Versus Dexmedetomidine Sedation Reduces Delirium

Abstract

OBJECTIVES Postoperative delirium (POD) is a serious complication after cardiac surgery. Use of dexmedetomidine infusion to prevent delirium is controversial. We hypothesized that dexmedetomidine sedation after cardiac surgery would reduce the incidence of POD. METHODOLOGY After the approval from institutional ethics review board and informed consent, a comparative cross sectional study was conducted in 100 patients scheduled for cardiac surgery. Patients suffering from consequential psychological issues, delirium, and grievous dementia were excluded. Delirium was evaluated by confusion assessment method for ICU (CAM-ICU). Normality and homogenity of data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Sminorv and saphiro wilk. The factors related to delirum status were analyzed using Logistic Regression. RESULTS The mean age among propofol group was 55.14+9.6 while among Dexmedetomidine was 55.96+12.1. POD was present in 24 of 50 (48%) and 4 of 50 (8.%) patients in propofol and dexmedetomidine groups, respectively. variables which had significance values <0.05 were patient age (0.000), associated disease (p<-0.003). In regards to other variables like patient gender (p value: 0.660), pre-operative medication (p value: -0.090), different type of surgery (p value: -0.239), had no correlation with POD. CONCLUSION In comparison with propofol, dexmedetomidine postoperative sedation minimized the occurrence and abbreviated the time span of POD in patients who had to undergo cardiac surgery.

Keywords

• Cardiac surgery
• Delirium
• Dexmedetomidine
• Propofol
• Sedation procedure
• intensive care unit