SynthesisBMC anesthesiology2025
Dexmedetomidine for the prevention of postoperative delirium in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis.
Synthesis in BMC anesthesiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- The perioperative brain: navigating neurological risks in non-neurosurgical patients.Intensive care medicine · 2026Article
- Association of preoperative prognostic nutritional index with postoperative delirium after gastric cancer surgery.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Post-Operative Delirium in Elderly Patients: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Molecular and Clinical Considerations for Anesthesia in the Aging Brain.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe efficacy of dexmedetomidine in preventing postoperative delirium (POD) following cardiac surgery remains controversial. This systematic review aimed to evaluate whether dexmedetomidine could prevent POD in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
methodsPubMed, CENTRAL, and Embase were searched up to 1 November 2024. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning dexmedetomidine for preventing POD in patients undergoing cardiac surgery were included. The primary outcome was the incidence of POD, and the secondary outcome was the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF). The analyses were performed using RevMan 5.3 and R 4.4.2 to calculate risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Trial sequential analysis (TSA) was conducted using TSA 0.9.5.10 Beta.
resultsThirty-two studies with 6046 participants were included. Dexmedetomidine notably reduced the incidence of POD (RR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.59-0.76, P < 0.00001), with sufficient evidence and conclusive result from TSA. Dexmedetomidine was more effective in preventing POD compared with both positive control (RR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.38-0.59, P < 0.00001) and placebo control (RR = 0.83, 95% CI 0.70-0.98, P = 0.02). It reduced the incidence of POD not only in elderly patients (RR = 0.66, 95% CI 0.54-0.81, P < 0.0001) but also in normal age patients (RR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.57-0.80, P < 0.00001). Moreover, dexmedetomidine decreased the incidence of POAF (RR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.74-0.92, P = 0.0005).
conclusionsDexmedetomidine could reduce the incidence of POD in patients undergoing cardiac surgery and was associated with a decreased incidence of POAF. The findings should be interpreted with caution because of the low to moderate quality of evidence. Further trials are still needed to explore the optimal regimen of dexmedetomidine. REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY2024110008.
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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 Socratic graph.