Ketodex Versus Opioid Based Anesthesia in Obese Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy.

Bariatric surgery has seen a substantial increase, especially among patients with medically complex obesity who struggle to lose weight with traditional approaches . Although advances in anesthetic procedures enhance surgical and clinical outcomes, regular opioid usage in bariatric surgeries might result in adverse effects such as drowsiness, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), respiratory depression, and impaired gastrointestinal motility. These adverse effects increase the risk of postoperative cardiac and respiratory complications . The key to managing such patients is the utilization of a novel form of anesthesia and analgesia, known as opioid-sparing anesthesia, which has recently been developed to ensure better outcomes . During opioid-sparing anesthesia, the sympathetic nervous system is inhibited by means other than opioid delivery . Such techniques include the use of medications from the alpha-2 agonist group, lidocaine, ketamine, magnesium sulfate, beta-blockers, or gabapentinoids . Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist with analgesic and anti-hyperalgesic properties at low doses . This drug prevents the development of opioid tolerance by minimizing opioid use while reducing postoperative pain, ultimately decreasing opioid-related postoperative morbidity . Dexmedetomidine, a highly selective α2-adrenoceptor agonist, is used as an adjuvant analgesic in the perioperative period . It improves hemodynamic stability and reduces the stress induced by intubation due to its central sympatholytic action . Furthermore, it decreases the need for opioids and anesthetics, providing additional benefits for obese patients . By lowering the required dosages, adding a low dose of ketamine to dexmedetomidine is thought to result in less toxicity than using either medication alone . Vishnuraj et al. concluded that the combination of ketamine and dexmedetomidine effectively reduced postoperative opioid consumption; however, their approach involved the use of ketamine as a bolus following induction, in conjunction with a continuous infusion of dexmedetomidine in adults undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy . To the best of our knowledge, the use of both ketamine and dexmedetomidine infusion versus opioid-based anesthesia among patients undergoing bariatric surgery, specifically regarding postoperative pain, has not been previously compared