BACKGROUND: Sufentanil-induced cough (SIC) is a common but irritating phenomenon during general anesthesia (GA) induction
studies have reported that high doses of dezocine can effectively prevent it. The aim is to explore the efficacy and safety of low-dose dezocine in preventing SIC during GA induction in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. METHODS: 81 elective CABG surgery patients were randomly and equally divided into 2 dezocine groups of different doses and 1 control group. Before GA induction, the patients received "pre-injection" solution: 0.1 mg/kg dezocine in the high-dose (HD) group, 0.05 mg/kg dezocine in the low-dose (LD) group or an equal volume of saline in the control (C) group. The primary outcome was the incidence of SIC within 1 minute after sufentanil administration. The secondary outcomes included the severity of SIC, the adverse reactions within 1 minute after injection of the "pre-injection" solution, and the vital signs at various time points. RESULTS: One patient had moderate SIC in the HD group (3.7%), 3 patients (11.1%) had SIC (1 mild and 2 severe) in the LD group, and 8 patients (29.6%) had SIC (3 mild, 1 moderate, and 4 severe) in the C group. The difference between the HD and the C groups was statistically significant (P = .01). In contrast, in comparing the LD and the C groups, the LD and the HD groups had no statistically significant difference (P >
.017). CONCLUSION: The current study suggested that pretreatment of 0.05 mg/kg dezocine neither prevented SIC occurrence nor attenuated SIC severity during GA induction in CABG surgery, but 0.1 mg/kg dezocine did.