Inhalational Agents Versus Dexmedetomidine for Maintenance of General Anesthesia

The climate crisis and environmental pollution are escalating day by day, making the reduction of carbon footprints increasingly important both on an individual and industrial level. Inhalational anesthetic agents are widely used in daily anesthesia practice. However, some of these agents are released into the environment either unchanged or as metabolic by-products. It can take hundreds of years for these substances to be fully eliminated from nature. Therefore, there is a growing interest in identifying alternative anesthetic agents that are fully metabolized, do not produce waste, have a shorter duration of action, and pose less harm to ecosystems. Recent clinical studies have shown that dexmedetomidine, when administered intraoperatively via infusion without a loading dose and in combination with inhalational agents, provides more stable hemodynamics and results in a shorter postoperative recovery period. Commonly used as a long-term sedative agent in intensive care units, dexmedetomidine has gained popularity in the intraoperative setting due to its stable hemodynamic profile, low incidence of withdrawal symptoms, and faster recovery. In this study, it is aimed to demonstrate the potential use of dexmedetomidine-whose pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties are well-known to experienced anesthesiologists-as an alternative to inhalational anesthetic agents for the maintenance of anesthesia, particularly in the geriatric patient population.