[Urapidil for treatment of postanesthetic shivering following general anesthesia. A placebo controlled pilot study].
OBJECTIVE
Postanaesthetic shivering is common during recovery from general anaesthesia. Therefore we studied whether urapidil suppresses postanaesthetic shivering.


METHODS
With written informed consent and approval of the local ethics committee, patients (ASA I-II) recovering from general anaesthesia were monitored for 1 h. Patients with continuous shivering for a period of 5 min were randomly treated either with 5 ml placebo (isotonic saline) or 25 mg urapidil in a double-blind trial. This treatment procedure was repeated if shivering did not stop. A complete suppression of shivering was appraised as a sufficient treatment.


RESULTS
Shivering occurred in 20 of the patients studied and urapidil stopped shivering in 7 out of the 10 treated patients, whereas the placebo stopped shivering in only 2 out of 10 patients (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
In a placebo controlled trial, it was demonstrated that postanaesthetic shivering can be successfully treated by urapidil in 70% of the patients.
Fritz
H
H
Klinik für Anästhesiologie und Intensivtherapie des Klinikums der Friedrick-Schiller-Universität Jena.Harald.Fritz@med.uni-jena.de
Schwarzkopf
K
K
Hoff
H
H
Kurzweg
V
V
Hartmann
M
M
Klein
U
U
D000317:Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000328:Adult; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000187:drug effects; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D010879:Piperazines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012768:Shivering / Q000187:drug effects*
D000317:Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists; D010879:Piperazines; C015568:urapidil