Dexmedetomidine for Procedural Sedation in the Emergency Department: A Systematic Review

Procedural sedation (PS) plays an important role in facilitating emergency procedures. Dexmedetomidine is an alpha-adrenergic agonist which can play a role in this issue. This study aimed to systematically review the literature about the role of dexmedetomidine in PS in the emergency department (ED).

In this study, several databases, namely PubMed, Embase, Ovid, ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, were searched since 1999 up to November 30, 2020. The inclusion criteria in this study were randomized clinical trials performed on ED patients using dexmedetomidine for PS and articles only in the English language. The exclusion criteria were the studies that were not clinical trials or were not performed in the ED, low-quality studies or animal studies.

A total of 473 articles were identified in this study. Five studies fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Three articles studied the adult population. One study used dexmedetomidine in an intranasal way, and one study used an intramuscular route for drug administration.

Although the reviewed studies reported dexmedetomidine as a safe and effective agent for PS, there are not sufficient data on this issue. Therefore, it is required to perform further studies to a draw firmer conclusion.