Dexmedetomidine Reduces Incidences of Ventricular Arrhythmias in Adult Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Study design of included randomized controlled trials.

Author (publication year) (citation)	Study design	# of patients	Sedation goal	Dex dose	Dex intervention time	Control
Jaionen et al. [25]	Double blind, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial	80	Unspecified	Loading dose 50 ng/kg/min for 30 mins and then maintained at 7 ng/kg/min	30 mins before initiation of surgical anesthesia—end of surgery	Saline placebo
Corbett et al. [23]	Prospective, randomized study	89	RSS of 5 for the first 2 h postoperative, followed by a score of 3 to 4 during intubation	Loading dose of 1 μg/kg induction and then maintained by 0.4 μg/kg/h	ICU admission—1 hr postextubation	Propofol: 0.2 to 0.7 μg/kg/h
Shehabi et al. [20]	Randomized, double-blinded controlled trial	299	MAAS 2–4	0.1 to 0.7 μg/kg/h	ICU admission—extubation/leaving the ICU/48 h maximum	Morphine: 10 to 70 μg/kg/h
Herr et al. [24]	Randomized, open label study	295	RSS ≥3 during assisted ventilation and ≥2 after extubation	Loading dose of 1.0 μg/kg and then maintained by 0.2 to 0.7 μg/kg/h	Sternal closure—24 h in the ICU	Propofol: unspecified dose
Ren et al. [22]	Randomized controlled trial	162	Unspecified	0.2–0.5 μg/kg/h	Following the first vascular anastomosis grafting—12 h in the CICU	Saline placebo
Soltani et al.[27]	Randomized, blinded clinical trial	76	BIS 40–60	0.5 μg/kg/h	Surgical induction—transfer to CICU	Saline placebo

Dex, dexmedetomidine; MAAS, motor activity assessment scale; RSS, ramsay sedation score; BIS, bispectral index; CPB, cardiopulmonary bypass; CICU, cardiac intensive care unit; ICU, intensive care unit.