Abstract
Dexmedetomidine is an ideal sedative. It also has an analgesic effect that causes almost no respiratory depression, and patients given this drug wake up immediately in response to verbal commands but remain asleep if there is no stimulation. However, fluctuations in blood pressure and individual differences in response to the effects of the drug are so great that many anesthesiologists regard dexmedetomidine as being a difficult sedative to use. This problem could be resolved, however, by an understanding of the pharmacological characteristics and analysis of the pharmacokinetics of dexmedetomidine. In this paper, the causes of the inconvenience that arises when using dexmedetomidine and methods to deal with this inconvenience are discussed, and a method for taking advantage of the ideal characteristics of the drug is described.
