Clinical and economic evaluation of dexmetomidine use at an university hospital

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate clinical dexmetomidine use and economic impact of its acquisition to adult patients at a university hospital. Methods: Observational and descriptive study, of prospective type, in which the medication request forms received between December 15th, 2016 and December 15th, 2017 were analized. The data collected were age, gender, days requested and released, clinical justification, dosage, posology and method of administration. The financial cost was calculated assuming the unitary value of the medicine. The statistical analysis was performed by Stata 12.0. Results: 79 forms were collected. 14 were from the coronary care unit, 41 from the adult intensive care unit and 24 from the surgery center. The requests were divided into surgical group and clinical group. Most patients were male aged 30 or more. For the surgical group, the request and release time were mostly the same, meanwhile for the clinical one it was 3.73 and 3 days, respectively. The daily dosage was 233.33 mcg/day in the surgical group and 773.77 µg/day in the clinical one. In the surgical group the use was due to sedation in non-aesthetic breast surgeries. In the clinical one it was for psychomotor agitation, sedoanalgesia and delirium. The cost for the clinical group was R$ 58,470.65, while for the surgical one it was R$ 2,995,65, summing up R$ 61,466.30. Conclusion: The financial cost demanded with the use of the medicine was similar to the one found in another high complexity public hospital.