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Background: Postoperative pain represents an important concern when remifentanil is used for total intravenous anesthesia because of its ultrashort half-life. Longer acting opioids, such as sufentanil, have been used during induction of remifentanil-based total intravenous anesthesia as a means to overcome this shortcoming. However, the effectiveness and safety of such strategy still lacks evidence from randomized clinical trials. Hence, we aimed to assess the postoperative analgesic efficacy and safety of a single dose of sufentanil administered during the induction of remifentanil-based total intravenous anesthesia., Methods: Forty patients, scheduled for elective open abdominal surgery, were randomized to receive remifentanil-based total intravenous anesthesia with or without a single dose of sufentanil upon induction. We assessed the postoperative morphine consumption administered through a patient-controlled analgesia pump. Self-reported pain scores and the occurrence of nausea, vomiting, pruritus, agitation, somnolence and respiratory depression were also assessed up to 2 days after surgery., Results: The mean difference between the sufentanil and control groups regarding morphine consumption in the post-anesthetic care unit and at 12, 24 and 48h after surgery were -7.2mg (95%CI: -12.5 to -2.1, p<0.001), -3.9mg (95%CI: -11.9 to 4.7, p=0.26), -0.6mg (95%CI: (-12.7 to 12.7, p=0.80), and -1.8mg (95%CI: (-11.6 to 15.6, p=0.94), respectively. Neither self-reported pain nor the incidence of adverse events were significantly different between groups at any time point., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the administration of sufentanil during induction of remifentanil-based total intravenous anesthesia is associated with decreased early postoperative opioid consumption., (Copyright © 2019 Sociedade Brasileira de Anestesiologia. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.)

Background and Objectives: Sedative and analgesic treatment administered to critically ill patients need to be regularly assessed to ensure that previously stated goals are well achieved as the risk of complications of oversedation is minimized. We revised and prospectively tested the Ramsay Sedation Scale (RSS) for interrater reliability and compared it with the Riker Sedation-Agitation Scale (RSAS) and the Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS) to test construct validity during midazolam-remifentanil sedation., Methods: A convenience sample of ICU patients was simultaneously and independently examined by pairs of trained evaluators by using the revised RSAS, RSS, and RASS. Ninety-two ICU patients were examined a total of 276 times by evaluator pairs., Results: The mean patient age was 61.32±18.68years, 45,7% were female (n=42), 54.3% male (n=50). Their APACHE values varied between 3 and 39 with an average of 13.27±7.86 and 75% of the cases were under mechanical ventilation. When classified by using RSS (2.70±1.28), 10.9% were anxious or agitated (RSS1), 68.5% were calm (RSS 2-3), and 20.6% were sedated (RSS 4-6). When classified by using RASS (-0.64±1.58), 20.7% were anxious or agitated (RASS+1 to +4), 63.0% were calm (RASS 0 to -2), and 16.3% were sedated (RASS -3 to -5). When classified by using RSAS (2.63±1.00), 12% were anxious or agitated (RSAS 5-7), 57.6% were calm (RSAS 4), and 30.4% were sedated (RSAS 1-3). RSS was correlated with the RSAS (r=-0.656, p<0.001) and RASS was correlated with the RSAS (r=0.565, p<0.001). RSS was highly correlated with the RASS (r=-0.664, p<0.001)., Conclusions: Ramsay is both reliable and valid (high correlation with the RASS and RSAS scales) in assessing agitation and sedation in adult ICU patients., (Copyright © 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Anestesiologia. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.)