SynthesisDrug design, development and therapy2018
Can dexmedetomidine reduce atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Drug design, development and therapy, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does Dexmedetomidine Reduce the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke After Adult Cardiac Surgery? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Anatolian journal of cardiology · 2022Pooled it
- Influence of Dexmedetomidine on Post-operative Atrial Fibrillation After Cardiac Surgery: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Dexmedetomidine on supraventricular tachycardia in critical illness: a time-dependent propensity score matching study.Critical care (London, England) · 2026Article
- Review
- Research status and advances in dexmedetomidine for sepsis‑induced multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Association of Dexmedetomidine With New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Critical Illness.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- New-Onset Post-Operative Atrial Fibrillation in Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery - A Retrospective Case-Control Study.Brazilian journal of cardiovascular surgery · 2023Article
- Effects of Dexmedetomidine on Basic Cardiac Electrophysiology in Adults; a Descriptive Review and a Prospective Case Study.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Effects of dexmedetomidine on surgery for type A acute aortic dissection outcome.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Predictive value of NT-proBNP, procalcitonin and CVP in patients with new-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery.American journal of translational research · 2022Article
- Major Publications in the Critical Care Pharmacotherapy Literature: 2020.Critical care explorations · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeCardiac surgery patients always present with atrial fibrillation (AF) after admission to the intensive care unit, leading to high mortality and lengthy hospitalization. Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is a popular medication used for sedation in the intensive care unit; however, whether it can reduce AF needs to be analyzed. MATERIALS AND
methodsThree primary databases, Medline, Embase (Ovid SP) and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), were searched. All English language and randomized control designed clinical publications comparing DEX to control medicines for sedation after elective cardiac surgery were included. Two independent colleagues conducted the data extraction and quality assessments. The subgroup analysis was performed according to the medicine used, age, AF history, and whether previous beta-blocker premedication and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) were applied. The overall incidence of AF was analyzed.
resultsA total of 1,295 patients in nine studies met the selection criteria among 2,587 studies screened from the database. After quantitative synthesis, our results revealed that the DEX group was not associated with a decreased incidence of AF compared with the placebo (risk ratio [RR] 0.76, 95% CI 0.37, 1.55,
conclusionThis meta-analysis revealed that DEX could not reduce the incidence of AF compared to control medicines following cardiac surgery. DEX may have an increased influence on AF occurrence if patients had a history of AF. However, cautious interpretation should be made due to high clinical heterogeneity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.