Decrease Emergence Agitation and Provide Pain Relief for Children Undergoing Tonsillectomy & Adenoidectomy

Completed · Phase 3

Conditions studied: Obstructive Sleep Apnea

In brief

Pediatric tonsillectomy (with or without adenoidectomy) is a brief but painful surgery carried out in children who very often also present with obstructive sleep apnea. To provide pain relief, i.e. analgesia, current practice relies on opioids , e.g., morphine or fentanyl. These narcotics are known to depress respiration and to increase the incidence of post-operative nausea and vomiting. These side effects are worrisome in this patient cohort. An alternative medication, dexmedetomidine, may have an opiate sparing effect and has a high safety profile in adults as well as in sedation in children. The purpose of this study is to determine if intravenous dexmedetomidine given as an infusion during general anesthesia for tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy reduces the incidence and severity of emergence agitation, improves analgesia and reduces nausea and vomiting in the 60 minutes following surgery.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT00468052
Run by
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
People needed
122
Starts
2007-03-01
Expected to finish
2008-05-01
Last updated by the study team
2016-12-05

Who can join

Age: 2 and older, up to 10. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

You may not qualify if…

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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