Dezocine attenuates fentanyl-induced cough in a dose-dependent manner-a randomized controlled trial

Fentanyl-induced cough (FIC) should be effectively prevented in patients requiring stable induction of general anesthesia. Our study was to evaluate the suppressive effects of different doses of intravenous dezocine on FIC during the induction of general anesthesia. A total of 400 patients of American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I and II were randomized into four groups (n = 100). Right before Fentanyl bolus, the four groups were given intravenously a matching placebo (group I) (equal volume of 0.9% saline), dezocine 0.025 mg/kg (group II), 0.05 mg/kg (group III), and 0.1 mg/kg (group IV), respectively. Patients were induced with fentanyl 3 µg/kg and the injection time of fentanyl was less than 5 s in all patients. The occurrence of cough was recorded 2 min after fentanyl bolus. The incidence of FIC was 40% in group I, 12% in group II, 4% in group III, and 0 in group IV. Group I had significantly higher incidence of FIC than Groups II, III and IV (P < 0.05). Group IV had lower incidence of FIC than Groups II (0% vs 12%; P = 0.0003) and III (0% vs 4%; P = 0.043). Our study showed that intravenous dezocine reduced the incidence of FIC during anesthetic induction. The suppressive effect was dose-dependent.