American journal of therapeutics
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Sevoflurane is associated with a relatively high incidence of emergence agitation (EA) in children. Prophylactic treatment, including midazolam, dexmedetomidine, ketamine, fentanyl and propofol, has been used to prevent EA. However, the question of which prophylactic treatment should be preferred to decrease the incidence of EA is still unclear. ⋯ One interesting finding of this network meta-analysis is that dexmedetomidine might be the best choice to prevent EA. However, there is weak evidence that dexmedetomidine is better than ketamine for the prevention of sevoflurane-related EA in children. As a result, more studies are needed to compare dexmedetomidine with ketamine.