Clinical Effect of Small-Dose Dexmedetomidine Combined with Oxycodone for Patient-Controlled Analgesia After Colon Cancer Surgery

This study aimed to elucidate the efficacy and safety of oxycodone combined with dexmedetomidine for patientcontrolled analgesia after colon cancer. Sixty patients were randomly divided into the experimental and control groups (n = 30 each). The control group received 0.5 mg/kg oxycodone. The experimental group received 0.5 mg/kg oxycodone and 2 μg/kg dexmedetomidine. Both groups were administered normal saline (NS) up to 100 mL (via background infusion at 2 mL/h with a 0.5-mL bolus dose and 15-min lockout interval). Both groups received oxycodone 0.1 mg/kg and tropisetron 5 mg, 20 min before the end of surgery. The MAP and HR of T1, T2, T3, and T4 were recorded in three groups. After the operation, a blinded observer assessed pain using the visual analogue scale (VAS) score, level of sedation (Ramsay score), and postoperative nausea and vomiting score at 2, 6, 24, 48 h. Side effects included dizziness, shivering, headache, and pruritus. The results showed that, in the experimental group, the T2∼T5 activity pain and T2∼T4 visceral pain VAS scores of patients were obviously lower than those in the control group (activity pain P T2∼T5 = 0.000, visceral pain P T2 = 0.018, P T3 = 0.001, P T4 = 0.010). The dosage of analgesic pump and number of rescue analgesia occurrences in the experimental group were far lower than those in the control group (P = 0.000 and P = 0.029, respectively). The time of first anus exhaust of the patients in the experimental group was obviously earlier than that of the control group (P = 0.030), and the number of vomiting occurrences of the patients in the experiment group was obviously lower than that in the control group (P = 0.023). No significant differences in the incidence of other adverse reactions were observed between the two groups within 48 h post-operation (P >0.05). In summary, oxycodone combined with dexmedetomidine can be safely and effectively used for analgesia after laparoscopic radical resection of colon cancer.