Baseline measurements
The following baseline measurements were analysed: age, sex, Body Mass Index (BMI), American Society of Anaesthesiology Physical Score (ASA PS), quantity of preoperative long-term agents taken by the patient, polypharmacy defined as more than five preoperative long-term agents, Anti-cholinergic Drug Scale (ADS) of the long-term agents, type of surgery, incision-suture time, applied volume of placebo or dexmedetomidine.Complementary to the baseline characteristics, opioid, anaesthetic, and red blood cell transfusion requirements were recorded from the intraoperative data as potential influencing factors on cholinesterase activities.