Sufentanil for Anesthesia Induction in Continuous Remifentanil Anesthesia
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-01-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The appropriate management of postoperative pain is recognized as an important clinical
challenge with implications beyond humanitarian issues. Evidence shows that effective
postoperative analgesia is associated with physiological benefits to the patient, shortened
length of hospital stay and lower rates of in-hospital complications, such as pneumonia,
delirium and persistent pain after surgery. However, despite the availability of several
analgesic drugs and strategies the prevention and treatment of postoperative pain is often
suboptimal. Remifentanil is a potent short acting opioid commonly used in continuous infusion
for anesthesia for several surgical procedures. Remifentanil has been extensively advocated
as a means to provide quick patient awakening in the immediate postoperative period with a
very low risk of respiratory depression. Yet it does not provide residual analgesia and
postoperative pain is a major concern. In order to overcome this limitation, practicing
anesthesiologists frequently give patients a single dose of Sufentanil, a long acting opioid,
during the induction of anesthesia where Remifentanil will be used in continuous infusion.
However the effectiveness of this strategy still lacks evidence from controlled clinical
trials.