Comparison of intranasal dexmedetomidine and oral chloral hydrate administration for deep sedation in children: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective To compare the effect of intranasal dexmedetomidine and oral chloral hydrate in deep sedation of children. Methods The Pubmed, EMBase, CENTRAL (Issue 4, 2018), Web of science, CBM, Wanfang Data, CNKI and VIP databases from the inception to January 2019 were searched. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with dexmedetomidine and chloral hydrate as interventions were included and the data were analyzed by RevMam 5.3 and Stata 12.0 software. The success rate of deep sedation, the indicator of sedation onset time, the recovery time, the incidence of vomiting and bradycardia were compared. Results A total of 7 RCTs involving 1 007 patients were included for analysis. The results showed that the success rate of deep sedation (OR=2.55, 95%CI:1.46-4.44, P<0.01) and the incidence of bradycardia (OR=4.42, 95%CI:1.82-10.74, P<0.01) in the dexmedetomidine nasal group were significantly higher than those in the chloral hydrate oral group. The recovery time was significantly shorter (MD=-16.41, 95%CI:-21.54-11.28, P<0.01) and the incidence rate of vomiting (OR=0.04, 95%CI:0.01-0.17, P<0.01) in dexmedetomidine nasal group was significantly lower than those in the chloral hydrate oral group. There was no significant difference in the indicator of sedation onset time (MD=-0.47, 95%CI:-2.71-1.22, P=0.46). Conclusion Compared with the traditional oral chloral hydrate, intranasal dexmedetomidine has a higher sedation success rate and shorter recovery time after sedation with a lower incidence of nausea and vomiting. Key words: Chloral hydrate; Dexmedetomidine; Meta-analysis; Children, medium and deep sedation; Randomized controlled trial