How much esmolol was administered?

摘要

In their recent article, Lopez-Alvarez et al. compared an esmolol infusion vs ketamine-remifentanil combination for their effects on postoperative analgesia. I read the article with great interest, but I am confused about the esmolol dosing regimen that is reported. In the methods section, the dose of esmolol was reported as 0.5 mg.kg~(-1) iv bolus, followed by a continuous infusion titrated from 5-15 mug.kg~(-1).min~(-1) to maintain the patient's mean arterial pressure and heart rate within 20% of respective baseline values. Reviewing Table 1 of the article, the mean total esmolol dose administered was 5.2 mg.kg~(-1), whereas the mean duration of anesthesia was 64 min.