ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1579908
The dose-dependent efficacy of esketamine in spinal surgery with intraoperative neuroelectrophysiological monitoring: A randomized controlled trial
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Anesthesiology, Ningbo No.6 Hospital, Ningbo, China
- 2Department of Spine Surgery, Ningbo No.6 Hospital, Ningbo, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Purpose: This study aims to validate the efficacy and safety of combining different doses of esketamine with propofol, remifentanil, and dexmedetomidine in spinal surgery under intra-operative neuroelectrophysiological monitoring (IONM).All enrolled patients underwent a total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) maintenance regimen, which included propofol, remifentanil, and dexmedetomidine.The patients were randomly assigned to four groups based on the use and dosage of esketamine: Group Control (TIVA + NS), Group A (TIVA + Esketamine 0.1 mg/kg/h), Group B (TIVA + Esketamine 0.3 mg/kg/h), and Group C (TIVA + Esketamine 0.5 mg/kg/h). The study measured vital signs, consumption of anesthetics, operation time, blood loss, awakening time in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU), visual analog scale (VAS) pain score, quality of recovery (QoR) -15 score, and dosage of supplementary analgesics. Additionally, adverse postoperative reactions were recorded.Results: Group B had lower dosages of propofol (P = 0.021), remifentanil (P = 0.001), and dexmedetomidine (P < 0.001) than the Control Group, while Group C had lower dosages of remifentanil and dexmedetomidine (P < 0.001) than the Control Group. The postoperative mean arterial pressure (MAP) was lower in Group B than in the Control Group (P = 0.028). Patients in Group C experienced a prolonged awakening time (P < 0.001) but had lower VAS pain scores at PACU than those in the Control group (P = 0.044). Both QoR-15 scores and MoCA scores were significantly higher for patients in Groups A, B, and C compared to those of the Control group (QoR-15: P = 0.001, < 0.001, < 0.001; MoCA: P = 0.004, < 0.001, < 0.001). Group B had few postoperative complications.The dose of 0.3 mg/kg/h esketamine is safe and effective for spinal surgery with IONM, improving control of postoperative complications.
Keywords: Esketamine, clinical efficacy, Dose, spinal surgery, Intraoperative neuroelectrophysiological monitoring
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Wang, Zhang, Yuan, Liu, Zhu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Long Zhang, Department of Anesthesiology, Ningbo No.6 Hospital, Ningbo, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.