Dexmedetomidine Cardiovascular Safety in Pediatric Burn Patients

Cardiovascular Safety of Dexmedetomidine in Pediatric Burn Patients.

Dexmedetomidine is a sedative drug approved for adult patients, intubated, in intensive care units. We are studying whether this drug is cardiovascularly safe in pediatric patients who have recently been burned.

This is an ascending dose study evaluating the cardiovascular safety of dexmedetomidine bolus/infusions in acutely burned pediatric patients. The study entails a bolus of dexmedetomidine, followed by 2 hours of increasing infusion doses. Cardiovascular parameters including EKG, heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, are recorded.

Inclusion Criteria:

• pediatric patient
• >25% total body surface area (tbsa) burn and < 90% tbsa
• opioid requirements > 0.1 mg/kg/hour of morphine (or equivalent)
• midazolam requirement > 0.1 mg/kg/hour
• treatment team determined that patient should be started on dexmedetomidine

Exclusion Criteria:

• hemodynamically unstable patients (epinephrine > 1.0 ug/kg/min, levophed > 0.75 ug/kg/min, dopamine > 10 ug/kg/min)
• pregnant patients
• patients with history of heart block
• patients with congenital heart disease
• patients with significant hepatic dysfunction
• patients with urine output < 0.5 ml/kg/hour [averaged] over past 24 hours