Assessing interaction between dexmedetomidine and propofol

Excerpt

In the recent article by Yoo et al. [1] assessing the effect of dexmedetomidine pretreatment on the median effective bolus dose of propofol for facilitating laryngeal mask airway insertion, dexmedetomidine 1 µg/kg was infused over 10 min, followed by propofol 2.5 mg/kg administration and the laryngeal mask airway was inserted. The main disadvantage of using dexmedetomidine as a drug of anesthesia induction is slow onset. Because intravenous administration of dexmedetomidine has an onset of action after approximately 15 min in healthy adults, it is recommended that a single dose dexmedetomidine should be given 15 min before anesthesia induction [2]. Moreover, in the methods, there was no mention of time to start the laryngeal mask airway insertion after completion of propofol administration. After intravenous injection of propofol, the time to reach peak effect is about 100–120 s [3]. …