Dexmedetomidine as adjunct treatment for severe alcohol withdrawal in the ICU

Annals of Intensive Care

Table 1 Analysis Comparing Pre- and Post-Dexmedetomidine Data

Endpoint	Sample size (n) for endpoint	24 h before dex	First 24 H of dex therapy	Decrease in values following dex initiation (percent decrease)	p value	95% Confidence interval for decrease seen after dex initiation
Average Alcohol Withdrawal Scoring	11	9.0	7.1	1.9 (21.1%)	0.015	0.44–3.36(4.9%–37.3%)
Average Benzodiazepines Received (mg)	17	52.7	20.3	32.4 (61.5%)	<0.001	16.7–48.1(31.7%–91.3%)
Average Haloperidol Received (mg)	17	12.0	6.4	5.6 (46.7%)	0.052	0.03–11.23(−0.36–93.6%)
Average HR	17	102.8	79.3	23.4 (22.8%)	<0.001	18.4–28.4(17.9%–27.6%)
Average SBP	17	140.2	126.7	13.5 (9.6%)	0.002	5.32–21.68(3.8%–15.4%)
Hours With HR > 100	16	13.3	2.3	10.9 (82.0%)	<0.001	7.4–14.4(55.6–108.3%)
Hours With SBP >140	16	11.0	6.3	4.7 (42.3%)	0.02	0.8–8.6(3.8–15.4%)
Hours With HR <60	16	0.0	2.0	−2.0	0.055	4.05–0.05
Hours With SBP <90	16	0.0	0.9	−0.9	0.079	1.89–0.09

For dosing, total dose per 24 h period for each patient was averaged. For average vitals, mean values per 24 h period for each patient were averaged. For vitals outside normal range, total time outside normal range was calculated for each patient per 24 h period, and averaged. A sample size of 16 (instead of 17) was used for analyses of time spent with vitals outside normal, due to one patient having only six hours of available data. P values obtained from two-tailed paired t-tests. 95% confidence interval was calculated using t distribution for a paired sample and n-1 degrees of freedom. Dex = dexmedetomidine; SBP = systolic blood pressure; HR = heart rate.