Effects of dexmedetomidine on stress response to tracheal intubation in patients with essential hypertension

Objective To observe the effects of dexmedetomidine on stress response to tracheal intubation in patients with essential hypertension(EH).Methods Sixty EH patients were randomly divided into three groups of A(dexmedetomidine 1.0 μg/kg,followed by 0.5 μg·kg-1·h-1,plus sufentanil 0.5 μg/kg injection),B(sufentanil 0.5 μg/kg injection) and C(sufentanil 1.0 μg/kg injection) with 20 cases each.Blood pressure(BP) and heart rate(HR) were recorded after getting into operating room(T0),before induction(T1),before intubation(T2),at 1 min(T3) and 5 min(T4) after intubation.Plasma norepinephrine(NE),epinephrine(E) and dopamine(DA) were detected at the same times.Results Compared to groups of B and C,BP and HR were stable during intubation in group A(P0.01).The plasma concentrations of NE,E and DA at T1 were lower in group A than those in groups of B and C(P0.01),which in group B were higher at T3 than those at T0(P0.01).Conclusion Dexmedetomidine combined with sufentanil can attenuate the stress response to tracheal intubation in patients with EH.