BIOM 3090 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Dexmedetomidine, Premedication, Muscle Relaxant

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Biomedical Sciences
• Course: BIOM 3090
• Professor: Bettina Kalisch

Document Summary

Premedications are also called pre-anaesthetics and refer to a variety of injectable drugs. The main types of premedications include sedatives or anxiolytics which act as tranquillizers to calm the patient and reduce activity, hypnotics which are used to induce sleepiness and analgesics that minimize or abolish intra- and post-operation pain. Premedications are also used for minor diagnostic or surgical procedures in order to reduce the dose of general anesthetic needed to produce unconsciousness, smooth recovery from general anesthesia and facilitate post-operative treatments. Selected sedative classes include alpha-2 agonists such as dexmedetomidine and benzodiazepines such as diazepam. There are many types of sedatives that can be applied and they have sedative and analgesic beneficial effects. The mechanism of action is stimulation of alpha-2 receptors which opens k+ channels and inhibits neurotransmitter release in various brain pathways. They act primarily at 2 receptors in the brain and spinal cord as opposed to the periphery.