ADVERSE EVENTS WITH CONTINUOUS DOXAPRAM INFUSION AGAINST LATE POSTOPERATIVE HYPOXEMIA

Objective: A randomized double-blind controlled trial of doxapram vers us placebo against late postoperative hypoxaemia was planned to includ e 40 patients (2 x 20). Results: After inclusion of 18 patients a seri ous adverse event was encountered with development of a brain stem inf arction in a 90-year-old woman receiving doxapram. At this point the r andomization code was broken and we decided to terminate the trial. Th ree of nine patients receiving doxapram had had an adverse event where as none of the patients receiving placebo had adverse events (P = 0.2) . In the 18 patients studied, there was an insignificant trend towards higher mean oxygen saturation in the doxapram group, and a significan tly higher minimum oxygen saturation and reduced number of hypoxaemic events on the first postoperative night. Conclusion: Although these pr eliminary data on the effect of doxapram on postoperative hypoxaemia s eem promising, further studies on the effect of continuous nocturnal p ostoperative doxapram infusion on levels of arterial oxygen saturation should be postponed until more knowledge about the pharmacokinetics o f doxapram in this particular clinical situation has been gathered.