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Not yet recruitingNCT06837818Updated Feb 20, 2025

To Explore the Optimal Dose of Dexmedetomidine for Skull Pin Fixation in Intracranial Surgery

A Phase 4 interventional study of Dexmedetomidine in Procedural Pain, sponsored by Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital. Not yet recruiting. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-02-20.

Sponsored by Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital · Phase 4, Interventional, and Prevention

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Dec 2025, 10 months ago, but the record still lists the study as not yet recruiting.
Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
40
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Skull pin fixation is commonly used in intracranial surgery, which can increase the surgical field of view. Because skull pin fixation is a very irritating and painful medical treatment, it often results in tachycardia (>150-160 beats per min, bpm) and high blood pressure (BP) (>200/120 mmHg). Many strategies to reduce this painful stimulation include oral gabapentin, local injection of local anesthetics, scalp nerve blockade, and deepening the depth of anesthesia. Oral gabapentin must take 2 hr before surgery with many adverse effects such as nausea and vomiting. Local injection of local anesthetics and scalp nerve blockade require injections by neurosurgeons. Due to the manpower and time constraints, neurosurgeons cannot perform the two techniques. Therefore, it depends on anesthesiologists to prescribe more anesthetics to attenuate this intensity painful stimulation. Usually anesthesiologists will give propofol, opioids (fentanyl, alfentanil or remifentanil), α2 agonist (dexmedetomidine or clonidine), add inhalation anesthetics (sevoflurane or desflurane), and finally even use b-blocker to reduce hemodynamic instability (hyperdynamics).

Dexmedetomidine mainly produces a sedative effect by activating α2 adrenergic receptors in the central nervous system. Its α2:α1 ratio is 1620:1, showing high affinity for α2 receptors. Unlike other hypnotic drugs during death, dexmedetomidine keeps the patient in an awakenable state and does not affect respiratory function during sedation. Therefore, general anesthesia can be enhanced, providing sedation and analgesia and improving sleep quality.

Target-controlled infusion (TCI) pump systems can automatically adjust drug infusion rates based on the patient's weight, age, and other physiological parameters to achieve more precise drug concentrations. It can maintain a stable drug concentration and reduce the impact of drug fluctuations on patients, especially when long-term anesthesia or sedation is required. Therefore, using a TCI pump system to administer dexmedetomidine can ensure that the concentration we want can be accurately achieved when performing skull pin fixation. Our hospital has routinely used the Dyck mode of the TCI pump system to infuse dexmedetomidine 0.2-0.4 ng/ml during intracranial surgery.

In view of this, we wanted to observe patients undergoing intracranial surgery with skull pin fixation using the Dyck mode by the TCI pump system under the monitoring of analgesic nociceptive index and hemodynamics. In order to find out the most appropriate dexmedetomidine concentration during skull pin fixation to reduce hemodynamic fluctuations and insufficient pain management as a basis for future anesthesia.

02

Conditions studied

  • Procedural Pain

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Keywords

  • Skull pin fixation
  • dexmedetomidine
  • Target-controlled infusion
03

In context

Pain, Procedural

241 studies on the registry are indexed under Pain, Procedural; 64 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 40 is below the median of 90 across 227 interventional studies indexed under Pain, Procedural.

Browse Pain, Procedural studies →

Lead sponsor

Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital is the lead sponsor of 291 studies on the registry; 58 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 80 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Must be at least 18 years old and less than 80 years old, with \~III. Patients who are expected to undergo intracranial surgery for skull pin fixation.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients under the age of 18, patients over 80, those who have not signed a consent form, those with IV or higher, those who are allergic to dexmedetomidine or propofol or remifentanil, sever bradycardia (HR\<40 bpm), hypotension (\<90/60 mmHg) and hypertension crisis (180/110 mmHg), and emergency patients, etc.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

ASA physical status

The anaesthetists’ scale of health before surgery: I is healthy, II has a mild illness that is under control, III a severe one, IV a severe illness that is a constant threat to life. V and VI are used for the critically ill and for organ donors.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
40 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Participant Group

    skull pin fixation

    Drug: Dexmedetomidine

Interventions

  • The first patient was started on dexmedetomidine Cp 0.4 ng/ml, 2 minutes before the procedure, and the up and down method was used, with the Cp of dexmedetomidine adjusted to 0.05 ng/ml each time. The analgesia nociception index (ANI) during skull pin fixation is lower than (\<) 30 and the heart rate (HR) and arterial blood pressure (ABP) exceed (\>) 20% of the baseline (or the HR is \>100 bpm and the ABP is \>180/100 mmHg), indicating insufficient analgesia or hemodynamics (failure). If the patient is failure for the procedure, increase the Cp by 0.05 ng/ml for the next patient; the ANI is higher than or equal to (≥30) and the HR and ABP do not exceed 20% of the baseline or the HR is ≤100 bpm and the ABP is ≤180 /100 mmHg) indicates that the analgesia and hemodynamic stability are acceptable (success), and the next patient will be adjusted downward by 0.05 ng/ml.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. 50% effect concentration of dexmedetomidine

    50% effect concentration of dexmedetomidine will be recorded at 2 mins before fixation, during fixation, 5 mins after fixation, and 15 mins after fixation.

    Time frame: up to 15 minutes (peri-fixation period)

  2. 95% effect concentration of dexmedetomidine

    95% effect concentration of dexmedetomidine will be recorded at 2 mins before fixation, during fixation, 5 mins after fixation, and 15 mins after fixation.

    Time frame: up to 15 minutes (peri-fixation period)

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for Mar 2025; primary completion for Dec 2025, 9 months later.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Feb 16, 2025
First posted
Feb 20, 2025
StartEst.
Mar 1, 2025
Primary completionEst.
Dec 31, 2025
CompletionEst.
Dec 31, 2025
Last update
Feb 20, 2025
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 20, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06837818
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Feb 20, 2025
Start date
Mar 1, 2025 (estimated)
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2025 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 31, 2025 (estimated)
Last update
Feb 20, 2025

Study contacts

Zhi-Fu Wu, MD
Contact
aneswu@gmail.com
+886 7312110

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Feb 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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Studies of the drug tested here: Dexmedetomidine

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