Dexamethasone Use in Perioperative Neuroscience : Boon or Bane, or Both?

• Main Authors: Samuel Tsan, Ern Hung, Judith, Dinsmore
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. 2023
• Subjects: R Medicine (General); RD Surgery
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/42804/3/Dexamethasone%20-%20Copy.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/42804/; https://journals.lww.com/jnsa/fulltext/2023/10000/dexamethasone_use_in_perioperative_neuroscience_.2.aspx
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Dexamethasone is a synthetic corticosteroid that acts almost exclusively on glucocorticoid receptors. Its purported benefits are wide-ranging, and its use in neurosurgery and neuroanesthesia is ubiquitous. The ability of dexamethasone to reduce peritumoral cerebral edema was heralded as “one of the greatest translational research discoveries in neurosurgery.”1 In neuroanesthesia, the many benefits of dexamethasone have made it one of the anesthetist’s “go to” drugs for most neurosurgical cases, not just intracranial procedures. Currently, this enthusiasm does not seem to be dampened by the drug’s many adverse effects or the lack of evidence for optimal dosing. Therefore, before we reach for the syringe, the potential benefits of dexamethasone must be weighed against dexamethasone-associated morbidity.