Assessment of the effect of Dexmedetomidine on peripheral oxygen saturation changes in patients with covid-19 pneumonia

Introduction: sedative medications are widely used in intensive care unit patients. decreased peripheral blood oxygen saturation (spo2) is one of the common cases in patients with covid-19. this study aimed to evaluate the effect of dexmedetomidine on peripheral oxygen saturation among covid-19 pneumonia. methods: sixty patients were randomly divided into two intervention groups (n=30) and control (n=30). patients in the intervention group received dexmedetomidine with a bolus dose of 1 μ/kg/h for 10 minutes and then with a dose of 0.2 μ/kg/h to achieve a rass score of -2 to +1. patients in the control group received sedation drugs such as benzodiazepines, opium, or propofol according to the routine of the center. the well-known richmond stimulation and sedation scale (rass) was used to evaluate patient sedation. results: data analysis has shown that the changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and breathing rate are not significantly different between the two groups of patients (p>0.05). patients in the intervention group have higher spo2 compared to control group patients from 72 hours after starting dexmedetomidine without any considerable adverse effect (p<0.01). conclusion: the potential sedation effect of dexmedetomidine can be attributed to the improvement in lung mechanics due to better relaxation in the thorax. improvement in spo2, and mental status (from agitated to calm) of patients which could be due to dexmedetomidine.