Dexmedetomidine reduces shivering during epidural anesthesia

Intraoperative dexmedetomidine infusion may be effective in the prevention of post general anesthetic shivering. However, there is no study has been performed under epidural anesthesia. We aimed to investigate the effect of intraoperative usage of dexmedetomidine infusion on post epidural anesthesia shivering. Sixty patients were randomly assigned to two groups. Group DEX was received dexmedetomidine at a bolus dose of 1 ug/kg for 15 min immediately after the beginning of epidural anesthesia, while the control (CON) group received the same volume normal saline. Systolic arterial blood pressure (SBP) was lower in the CON group than in the DEX group at 30 min, 40 min and 50 min after the start of anesthesia. The heart rate (HR) and temperature are lower in the DEX group than in the CON group at between 10 min and 60 min after the beginning of anesthesia. The overall incidence of shivering was lower in the DEX group than in the CON group. Intraoperative dexmedetomidine (1 ug/ kg) effectively reduced the incidence of shivering during epidural anesthesia. Moreover, it produced an additional stable hemodynamic effect.