ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the effect of the combination of dexmedetomidine and sufentanil on monitoring anesthesia care during burr-hole surgery for patients with chronic subdural hematoma. Methods 96 pa-tients underwent burr-hole surgery for chronic subdural hematoma with MAC were randomly divided into two groups:Group D and Group DS (n=48 in each group). Local anesthetic block was started at least 10 min after DEX and sufentanil infusion. Ramsay sedation scale of the two groups was maintained to 3. Anesthesia onset time, hemo-dynamics, the amount of rescue midazolam or fentanyl, the time to first dose of rescue midazolam or fentanyl, the to-tal number of intraoperative patient movements, postoperative recovery time, patient and surgeon satisfaction scores, and the adverse events were recorded. Results Compared with group D, anesthesia onset time was significantly less in group DS (13.68 ± 3.13 vs. 11.82 ± 2.43 min, P=0.002). More patients in group D required rescue midazol-am to achieve RSS=3 compared with group DS (31.25%15/48 vs. 12.50%6/48, P=0.023). Compared with group D, significantly fewer patients in group DS required rescue fentanyl to relieve pain (10.42%5/48 vs. 27.08%13/48, P = 0.036). Additionally, the total dose of rescue fentanyl in group DS was significantly higher (89.48 ± 23.27 vs. 125.28 ± 33.52μg, P=0.000), and the time to first dose of rescue fentanyl was longer than group D(18.34 ± 4.45 vs. 14.34 ± 3.63 min, P=0.000). The total number of patient movements during the burr-hole surgery was higher in group D than group DS (35.42%17/48 vs. 16.67%8/48, P=0.036). The time to recovery for discharge from the PA-CU (time to an Aldrete score ≥ 9) was significantly shorter in group DS compared with group D (17.54 ± 5.92 vs. 12.57 ± 5.28 min, P=0.000). Results from the patient and surgeon satisfaction scores showed significant differenc-es favoring group DS (P<0.05). More patients in group D showed higher levels of the overall incidence of bradycar-dia (37.50% 18/48 vs. 18.75% 9/48, P = 0.041) and hypotension(37.50%18/48 vs. 14.58%79/48, P=0.011)com-pared with group DS. Conclusions Compared with DEX alone, DEX-sufentanil associated with fewer number of in-traoperative patient movements, less amount of rescue scheme, could be safely and efficiently used for MAC during burr-hole surgery for patients with chronic subdural hematoma.