Clonidine premedication for coronary artery bypass grafting under high-dose alfentanil anesthesia: intraoperative and postoperative hemodynamic study.

The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of clonidine in achieving perioperative hemodynamic stability in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting performed under high-dose alfentanil anesthesia. Twenty-four patients with left ventricular ejection fraction greater than 0.5 were prospectively studied in a double-blind manner; those requiring emergency procedures were excluded.

High-dose alfentanil for myocardial revascularization: a hemodynamic and pharmacokinetic study.

It has been suggested that high plasma levels of alfentanil are required in order to control hemodynamic responses to noxious stimuli in patients undergoing myocardial revascularization. The present study was designed to determine the hemodynamic profile in 10 patients and the time course of alfentanil plasma concentrations and pharmacokinetics (7 patients) during and following coronary artery surgery using alfentanil administration based on an overdosage principle. Premedication consisted of lorazepam, 0.