Median Effective Dose of Remifentanil for the Prevention of Myoclonus Induced by Etomidate Injection
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2023-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Since its introduction in 1973, etomidate has been widely used in clinical anaesthesia,
especially in haemodynamically unstable patients, as a new anaesthetic induction drug with
the advantage of low circulatory and respiratory depression. When administered via
intravenous injection, etomidate can cause adverse effects such as injection pain and
myoclonus. The incidence of myoclonus is still reported to be as high as 50-80%. Myoclonus
caused by etomidate may cause discomfort during induction of anaesthesia and reduce
perioperative satisfaction, and may lead to syringe dislodgement, extravasation of the
injected drug, swelling at the injection site, delayed induction of anaesthesia and, in
severe cases, cardiovascular adverse events. Therefore, the myoclonus and limb retraction
reactions caused by etomidate are a key concern for clinical anaesthesiologists and need to
be addressed at a time when comfort anaesthesia is being promoted. The aim of this study was
to reduce myoclonus produced by etomidate injection during induction of general anaesthesia
in surgical patients and to investigate the half effective dose of remifentanil to reduce
etomidate myoclonus.