Discussion
hypoxemia, pain
CHRONIC PAIN, ADVERSE EFFECTS
When K–M analysis was performed on patients systemically administering DEX during PNB, the DEX group had a higher ratio of patients who attained the target IOC2 (i.e. mean high analgesic efficacy) in a significantly faster manner than the MID group.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess and confirm the time required to attain the IOC2 target with DEX administration. In our study, we found that this time was approximately 15 min. In a previous pharmacokinetics report, non-compartmental analysis revealed that the distribution half-life of DEX was approximately 6 min [An ideal analgesic agent should provide satisfactory pain relief without side effects in patients. For respiratory safety, patients treated with DEX were less likely to experience hypoxemia, owing to the potential respiratory system stress effect of DEX, the SpORecently, several methods of pain monitoring have been developed [This study has some limitations. First, we did not evaluate the long-term outcomes of DEX administration, including chronic pain after discharge. Large-scale studies are required to rule out any long-term adverse effects after discharge. Second, the population included relatively healthy and young patients; thus, the effect of DEX administration in children and medically compromised populations is yet to be investigated. Future trials should investigate the effect of DEX administration in these populations.