The advantage and clinical application of remifentanil administered by target-controlled infusion

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Background Remifentanil is a novel, short-acting μ-opioid receptor agonist. Its context-sensitive half-time is very short, and there is no accumulation of effects after remifentanil withdrawal, regardless of time of administration. The pharmacokinetic characteristics make remifentanil suitable for administration by target-controlled infusion (TCI). Objective To evaluate the advantage and disadvantage of remifentanil administered by TCI in order to facilitate its improvement. Content Remifentanil administered by TCI is easy to be controlled and can provide a steady haemodynamics. Dosage of other anesthetics can be reduced when used along with remifentanil TCI. Remifentanil administered by TCI can apply to various types of anesthesia, such as induction and maintenance of general anesthesia, awake intubation, painless abortion and local block. Disadvantages existed in this TCI include imperfection of pharmacokinetics model for Chinese, limited ability of technique for measuring blood concentration of remifentanil, and lack of effective monitoring indicators for pain, which need to be researched further. Trend Improvement of the current remifentanil TCI will make it gain a wider application in clinical anesthesia. Key words: Remifentanil; Target-controlled infusion; Pharmacokinetics