Clinical research of dexmedetomidine combined with target-controlled infusion of propofol for surgery under general anesthesia in elderly patients

Objective: To evaluate the anesthetic efficacy and adverse reactions of dexmedetomidine combined with target-controlled infusion (TCI) of propofol in elderly patients scheduled for surgery under general anesthesia. Methods: A total of 60 elderly patients scheduled for surgery under general anesthesia were recruited and randomly divided into the observation group (30 cases) and the control group (30 cases). For general anesthesia, patients in the control group and the observation group were given sufentanil combined with TCI of propofol, and dexmedetomidine combined with TCI of propofol, respectively. The anesthetic efficacy and the incidence of adverse reactions were evaluated and compared between the two groups. Results: Our study showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups at different time points and time duration with respect to pulse oxygen saturation (SPO2) (T0: P=0.091, T1: P=0.201, T2: P=0.106, and T3: P=0.266, respectively). And heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) in the observation group at T1, T2 and T3, were all higher than those in the control group (P=0.013, 0.040, and 0.031, respectively). What's more, anesthetic onset time, breathing recovery time, extubation time and time of Observer's Assessment of Alertness/Sedation Scale (OAAS) which reached grade 5 in the observation group were all shorter than those of the control group (P=0.007, 0.031, 0.003 and 0.019, respectively). The incidence of adverse reactions in the observation group was 26.6%, which was significantly lower than that of the control group (56.6%) (P=0.039). Conclusion: Dexmedetomidine combined with propofol target-controlled infusion presented good anesthetic efficacy for surgery under general anesthesia in elderly patients, which can stabilize blood flow dynamics, shorten anesthetic onset and recovery time, and reduce the incidence of adverse reactions.