Profound hypertension with dexmedetomidine during insertion of deep brain stimulator

Abstract

Dexmedetomidine is now frequently used in the anaesthetic management of patients undergoing deep brain stimulator insertion for movement disorders. We present two patients with Parkinson’s disease and dystonia who developed marked increase in blood pressure and level of sedation during the infusion of a loading dose of dexmedetomidine (1 mcg/kg over 10 min). Both patients required treatment of their blood pressure. The first patient also had a computed tomography of the brain to rule out an intracranial event. The patients recovered from these untoward events in approximately 30 min. The possible explanations for both the hypertension and oversedation were underestimation of the severity of the patients’ underlying disease process and a relative overdose of the loading dose of dexmedetomidine.

Keywords

Deep brain stimulation - dexmedetomidine - hypertension - Parkinson’s disease

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