Sanjay Choubey, Saurabh Mishra, Pragati Garg, Arindam Sarkar, Aditi Gupta
BACKGROUND Patients who require endotracheal intubation in the emergency department often require a rapid sequence induction technique to protect against gastric contents aspiration and to facilitate intubation. Rapid Sequence Induction medication practices vary among the anaesthetists throughout the world. The use of succinylcholine causes an undesirable rise in intraocular pressure. Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective centrally acting α2-adrenergic agonist that has intraocular pressure lowering properties. The aim and objective of the present study was undertaken to evaluate the role of dexmedetomidine for attenuation of IOP. MATERIALS AND METHODS It was an observational study on 60 patients aged 20-50 years, and of ASA grade I and II, undergoing elective surgery in a tertiary care referral hospital. IOP was measured preoperatively and then just before intubation, after conclusion of premedication, thirty seconds after induction, thirty seconds after succinylcholine, immediately after intubation, two minutes, four minutes and six minutes after induction. RESULTS The study findings showed that at all time intervals dexmedetomidine had a better control on mean IOP. CONCLUSION Rise of IOP with succinylcholine and rapid sequence intubation can be blunted with I.V. dexmedetomidine premedication.
