CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1600737
This article is part of the Research TopicCase Reports in Anesthesiology 2025View all articles
Dexmedetomidine nasal spray to treat high-activity postoperative delirium: a case report
Provisionally accepted- 1Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
- 2Anesthesiology, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, China
- 3Anesthesiology, Chengdu Wenjiang District People's Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 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
High-activity postoperative delirium (POD) represents a prevalent neuropsychiatric complication during the perioperative period. Current clinical research predominantly focuses on preventive strategies, while effective pharmacological interventions remain limited, particularly for acute high-active subtypes. This case report demonstrates the successful use of dexmedetomidine nasal spray in managing acute high-active POD. The dexmedetomidine exerts its therapeutic effects through selective modulation of the locus coeruleus-noradrenergic pathway, providing physiological sedation resembling natural sleep architecture while preserving respiratory stability. It also exerts analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. The nasal spray facilitated precise dosing with rapid symptom resolution and maintained hemodynamic stability. This novel approach offers a safe and effective way to manage acute high-active POD.
Keywords: Dexmedetomidine, Nasal spray, postoperative delirium, hyperactive delirium, Non-intravenous sedation
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Chen, Liu and Li. 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: Peng Li, Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, 646000, Sichuan, 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.