Role of Intraoperative Dexmedetomidine Infusion in Enhanced Recovery after Surgery Protocols for Reducing Postoperative Analgesic Requirements in Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgeries

Abstract

ccording to the National Institutes of Health, obesity is a major health problem with clearly established health implications, including an increased risk for coronary artery disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, gallbladder disease, degenerative joint disease, obstructive sleep apnea, and socioeconomic and psychosocial impairment. Obese patients have more annual admissions to the hospital, more outpatient visits, and higher prescription drug costs than nonobese adults. Bariatric surgery has been proposed as the best alternative treatment for extreme obese patients when all other therapeutic options have failed. Pain management of the obese patient post-operatively is of great importance for not only the comfort, but also the outcome of patients. After bariatric surgery, pain is the most frequent postoperative problem, even if this surgery was performed laparoscopically. As known optimal analgesia for obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery has always been challenging for the Anesthesia team so in the most recent ERAS published protocol for bariatric surgery, there was strong evidence and recommendations to reduce the consumption of opioids by using multimodal analgesia or other analgesic adjuncts.