Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Efficacy of dexmedetomidine in the prevention and treatment of postanesthetic shivering after cesarean section

Yi Wang¹ , Xianjie Zhang²

¹Department of Surgical Anesthesiology, Dazhou Second People's Hospital, Sichuan Province 635000, China; ²Department of Anesthesiology, Sichuan Deyang People's Hospital, Deyang, Sichuan Province 618000, China.

For correspondence:- Yi Wang Email: wywy_wangyi23@163.com Tel:+8613568352078

Accepted: 25 July 2023 Published: 31 August 2023

Citation: Wang Y, Zhang X. Efficacy of dexmedetomidine in the prevention and treatment of postanesthetic shivering after cesarean section. Trop J Pharm Res 2023; 22(8):1705-1711 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v22i8.23

© 2023 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of dexmedetomidine in the prevention and treatment of postanesthetic shivering in cesarean section.

Methods: A total of 144 pregnant women who underwent anesthesia for cesarean section between March and December 2022 were randomly divided into the study group (n = 72) and control group (n = 72). The pregnant women were given combined spinal-epidural anesthesia. Following childbirth, those in the study group were given dexmedetomidine, while those in the control group were given normal saline. The dose of spinal anesthesia was administered based on the following criteria: intraoperative infusion, atropine usage, ephedrine usage, intraoperative bleeding, intraoperative dosage, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, incidence of shivering, and sedation score. Incidence of adverse reactions were recorded and compared between the two groups.

Results: Intraoperative infusion volume, bleeding volume, levels of atropine and ephedrine usage, and spinal anesthesia dose were similar between the two groups (p > 0.05). At 10 min post-treatment, the study group had lower mean arterial pressure, heart rate and incidence of postanesthetic shivering, as well as higher postoperative sedation score than the control group. Compared with the control group, the study group had slightly higher incidence of pregnancy-related adverse reactions, but the difference was non-significant.

Conclusion: Dexmedetomidine has good efficacy in preventing and treating postanesthetic shivering in cesarean section patients. However, further clinical trials are required prior to its adoption in clinical practice.

Keywords: Dexmedetomidine, Cesarean section, Postanesthetic shivering, Spinal anesthesia, Sedation score