ArticleAnnals of intensive care2018
Dexmedetomidine in prevention and treatment of postoperative and intensive care unit delirium: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in Annals of intensive care, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
32 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic meta-review of interventions to prevent and manage delirium in the Intensive Care Unit: Part 1 - Pharmacological interventions.Critical care (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Dexmedetomidine vs other sedatives in critically ill mechanically ventilated adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials.Intensive care medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Ketofol versus Dexmedetomidine for preventing postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing intestinal obstruction surgeries: a randomized controlled study.BMC anesthesiology · 2024Trial
- Evolving Trends and Collaborative Networks in Postoperative Delirium Research: A Two-Decade Bibliometric Analysis.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Clustering of disease trajectories with explainable machine learning: A case study on postoperative delirium phenotypes.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Effects of Dexmedetomidine on the Behavioral Outcomes in Streptozotocin-Induced Alzheimer's Disease Rats.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Impact of ultrasound-guided nerve block on postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing diabetic foot surgery: a propensity score-matched retrospective study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Dexmedetomidine's Role in Adult ICU After 20 Years of Experience-A Narrative Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Review
- Current and Developing Approaches for Facilitating Emergence from General Anesthesia.Anesthesiology · 2025Review
- The Challenges of Diagnosing, Managing, and Preventing Pediatric Delirium.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Perioperative Benefits of Dexmedetomidine as an Antiarrhythmic Agent in Noncardiac Surgical Patients:Sultan Qaboos University medical journal · 2025Article
- A target trial emulation of dexmedetomidine to treat agitation in the intensive care unit.Critical care science · 2025Article
- Incidence of Delirium in ICU Patients With and Without COVID-19 in a Costa Rican Hospital.Cureus · 2024Article
- A Comparison of Efficacy between Low-dose Dexmedetomidine and Propofol for Prophylaxis of Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients Undergoing Hip Fracture Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2024Article
- Association and prediction of subjective sleep quality and postoperative delirium during major non-cardiac surgery: a prospective observational study.BMC anesthesiology · 2023Observational
- MicroRNA-323-5p Involved in Dexmedetomidine Preconditioning Impart Neuroprotection.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Observational
- Acute kidney injury-associated delirium: a review of clinical and pathophysiological mechanisms.Critical care (London, England) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo determine the preventive and therapeutic effect of dexmedetomidine on intensive care unit (ICU) delirium.
methodsThe literature search using PubMed and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials was performed (August 1, 2018) to detect all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of adult ICU patients receiving dexmedetomidine. Articles were included if they assessed the influence of dexmedetomidine compared to a sedative agent on incidence of ICU delirium or treatment of this syndrome. Accordingly, relevant articles were allocated to the following two groups: (1) articles that assessed the delirium incidence (incidence comparison) or articles that assessed the treatment of delirium (treatment comparison). Incidence of delirium and delirium resolution were the primary outcomes. We combined treatment effects comparing dexmedetomidine versus (1) placebo, (2) standard sedatives, and (3) opioids in random-effects meta-analyses. Risk of bias for each included RCT was assessed following Cochrane standards.
resultsThe literature search resulted in 28 articles (25 articles/4975 patients for the incidence comparison and three articles/166 patients for the treatment comparison). In the incidence comparison, heterogeneity was present in different subgroups. Administration of dexmedetomidine was associated with significantly lower overall incidence of delirium when compared to placebo (RR 0.52; 95% CI 0.39-0.70; I
conclusionFindings suggest that dexmedetomidine reduces incidence and duration of ICU delirium. Furthermore, our systematic searches show that there is limited evidence if a delirium shall be treated with dexmedetomidine.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.