Dexmedetomidine attenuates one‐lung ventilation associated lung injury by suppressing inflammatory responses: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

One‐lung ventilation (OLV), a common ventilation technique, is associated with perioperative lung injury, tightly connected with inflammatory responses. Dexmedetomidine has shown positive anti‐inflammatory effects in lung tissues in pre‐clinical models. This study investigated the efficacy of dexmedetomidine for suppressing inflammatory responses in patients requiring OLV. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Ovid, and Cochrane Library for randomized controlled trials focusing on dexmedetomidine’s anti‐inflammatory effects on patients requiring OLV without any limitation on the year of publication or languages. 20 clinical trials were assessed with 870 patients in the dexmedetomidine group and 844 in the control group. Our meta‐analysis investigated the anti‐inflammatory property of dexmedetomidine perioperatively [T1 (30‐min OLV), T2 (90‐min OLV), T3 (end of surgery) and T4 (postoperative day 1)], demonstrating that dexmedetomidine’s intraoperative administration resulted in a significant reduction in serum concentration of interleukin‐6, tumor necrosis factor‐α and other inflammatory cytokines perioperatively. By calculating specific I (2) index, significant heterogeneity was observed on all occasions, with I (2) index ranging from 95% to 99%. For IL‐6 changes, sensitivity analysis showed that the exclusion of a single study led to a significant decrease of heterogeneity (96%–0%; p < 0.00001). Besides, pulmonary oxygenation was ameliorated in the dexmedetomidine group comparing with the control group. In conclusion, perioperative administration of dexmedetomidine can attenuate OLV induced inflammation, ameliorate pulmonary oxygenation, and may be conducive to a decreased occurrence of postoperative complications and better prognosis. However, the results should be prudently interpreted due to the evidence of heterogeneity and the limited number of studies.