Premedication with depot form of clonidine

Overview

In a prospective study we evaluated 252 patients premedicated with oral flunitrazepam vs combination of oral flunitrazepam and clonidine. We compared the incidence of postoperative shivering, basic hemodynamic parameters during anesthesia (incl. response to tracheal intubation and preoperative parameters), the effect on halothane and opioid consumption. The study also reflects routine feasibility of this pharmaceutical form of clonidine. With the addition of oral clonidine to standard oral premedication with flunitrazepam there can be achieved significant decrease of the frequency of postoperative shivering which would significantly increase oxygen consumption in postoperative phase, and improvement in vegetative stability during anesthesia maintaining hemodynamic parameters positively influencing myocardial oxygen consumption.

Key words:
clonidine – Catapresan – postoperative shivering – vegetative stabilisation