Study participants and randomisation
mental illness, arrhythmia, epilepsy, allergy, Alzheimer’s disease, fractures
AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDER, ALLERGY, ARRHYTHMIA, EPILEPSY
In this prospective study, patients presented to our institution with below-knee fractures and were hospitalised for below-knee orthopaedic surgeries. Using a computer-generated randomisation schedule, the patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to the DEX or midazolam (MID) group according to the allocation sequence.The inclusion criteria of the study were as follows: (1) patients undergoing below-knee orthopaedic surgeries and internal fixation under PNB anaesthesia, (2) aged 18–80 years, (3) classified using ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) grade I–IV, (4) having a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5–35 kg mThe study excluded patients (1) with a history of chronic use of alcohol, opioids or other sedative drugs; (2) with a history of allergy to any medications used in this study; (3) with severe arrhythmia; (4) who underwent PNB that was ineffective; (5) with preoperative systolic blood pressure (SBP) of < 85 mmHg; (6) with a preoperative heart rate (HR) of < 45 bpm; (7) with Alzheimer’s disease; (8) with epilepsy; (9) diagnosed with mental illness or other autonomic nervous system disorders that may affect electroencephalogram (EEG) findings and (10) underwent surgeries that lasted for > 3 h.