Use of Dexmedetomidine in Liver Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Dexmedetomidine is a sedative and analgesic medication that is frequently used postoperatively in children after liver transplantation, hepatic dysfunction and liver failure.

The aim of this systematic review was to determine the role of dexmedetomidine in liver disease.

We systematically reviewed the literature from PubMed, Embase, Scopus, ProQuest, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library from January 1980 to June 2019. The search strategy included a combination of Mesh and free keywords such as liver transplantation, liver diseases, liver failure, and dexmedetomidine.

From a total of 741 articles, 7 studies were included in this systematic review. In the selected studies, a total of 218 patients in the control and treatment groups were studied. Based on the Fixed effect model, MAP changes in the intervention group were 1.89 units less than the control group, which was not statistically significant (pooled mean difference = -1.89, 95% CI: -6.28 to 2.5, P value = 0.39).

DEX injection prior to anesthesia potentially had a protective effect on liver and intestinal function during hepatectomy with vascular occlusion.