Effect of remimazolam vs. propofol on hemodynamics during general anesthesia induction in elderly patients: Single-center, randomized controlled trial

Abstract

The current study aimed to compare the effects between remimazolam and propofol on hemodynamic stability during the induction of general anesthesia in elderly patients. We used propofol at a rate of 60 mg/(kg^h) in the propofol group (group P) or remimazolam at a rate of 6 mg/(kg^h) in the remimazolam group (group R) for the induction. A processed electroencephalogram was used to determine whether the induction was successful and when to stop the infusion of the study drug. We measured when patients entered the operating room (T0), when the induction was successful (T1), and when before (T2) and 5 min after successful endotracheal intubation (T3). We found that mean arterial pressure (MAP) was lower at T1-3, compared with T0 in both groups, but higher at T2 in the group R, while AMAPT0_T2 and AMAPmax were smaller in the group R (AMAPT0_T2: the difference between MAP at time point T0 and T2, AMAPmax: the difference between MAP at time point T0 and the lowest value from T0 to T3). Cardiac index and stroke volume index did not differ between groups, whereas systemic vascular resistance index was higher at T1_3 in the group R. These findings show that remimazolam, compared with propofol, better maintains hemodynamic stability during the induction, which may be attributed to its ability to better maintain systemic vascular resistance levels.