Patients
neurological disorder, Agitation, coma
NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER, COMA, THIRD-DEGREE HEART BLOCK
The inclusion criteria were age between 18 and 80 years, expected to receive mechanical ventilation for longer than 8 h, and the need for intravenous sedative medication for deep sedation, defined as a Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale (RASS) of − 4 or − 5. The main exclusion criteria were acute severe neurological disorder or coma, systolic blood pressure less than 90 mm Hg after appropriate intravenous volume replacement and vasopressors, and heart rate less than 50 beats/min or second- or third-degree heart block in the absence of a pacemaker (complete list of exclusion criteria in Additional file 