Comparison of Doses of Doxapram in the Treatment of Postanesthetic Shivering

Lee, Il Ok; Chae, Byung Kook

Abstract

Among the pharmacological methods treating postoperative shivering, there were no studies which compare the doses of doxapram. In this study, we have compared the effectiveness of doxapram in a placebo-controlled, double blind method. Sixty patients who shivered after operation under general anesthesia were examined. They were allocated randomly to receive normal saline(n=15), doxapram l mg/Kg(n=15), 1.5 mg/Kg(n=15) or 2 mg/Kg(n=15) from identical syringes intravenously. The investigator who gave the intravenous injection was unaware of the treatment received by the patient, and assessed the shivering. Both doxapram 1.5 mg/Kg and 2 mg/Kg were effective on shivering within 1~2 minutes after intravenous injection. In the saline group, all patients were still shivering 10 minutes after injection. In the doxapram 1 mg/Kg group, only two patients had stopped shivering by 6, 7 minutes after injection. In the doxapram 1.5 mg/Kg group, only three patients were shivering after injection. In the doxapram 2 mg/Kg group, only one patient was shivering after injection. We conclude that doxapram 1.5 mg/kg and 2 mg/kg were effective on postoperative shivering. And the results suggested that doxapram 2 mg/kg may be marginally superior to doxapram 1.5 mg/kg in this respect.