Objective: To investigate the correlation between the amount of sufentanil used during anesthesia and intraoperative hemodynamic fluctuation and postoperative recovery in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).
Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 454 patients undergoing elective heart surgery under CPB. Patients were divided into two groups according to the amount of sufentanil used during anesthesia: Group L (induced sufentanil 0.4– 0.6 ug /kg, maintained sufentanil 0.01– 0.02 ug/kg/min, n = 223) and Group H (induced sufentanil 4– 6 ug/kg, maintained sufentanil 0.02– 0.03 ug/kg/min, n = 231). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used at a 1:1 nearest-neighbor ratio to compare the two groups. Intraoperative use of vasoactive drugs, spontaneous heart rebound, secondary endotracheal intubation, postoperative mechanical ventilation time, the length of stay (LOS) in ICU, postoperative LOS in hospital, postoperative in-hospital mortality were analyzed.
Results: After matching, a total of 144 patients were included (72 patients in Group L, and 72 patients in Group H). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the dosage of sufentanil during anesthesia was significantly correlated with the utilization rate of intraoperative vasoactive drugs (P < 0.001) and the success rate of spontaneous heart rebound (p = 0.001). The utilization rate of vasoactive drugs decreased significantly in Group H (OR, 0.062; 95% CI, 0.019– 0.200) compared to that of Group L. The success rate of spontaneous heart rebound (OR, 0.187; 95% CI, 0.071– 0.491) was higher in Group H. There were no differences on postoperative recovery outcomes between the two groups.
Conclusion: On the basis of our data, the use of high-dose sufentanil is beneficial to keep the cardiovascular response of patients in a stable state, but there is no significant effect on the quality of early postoperative recovery.

Keywords: sufentanil, extracorporeal circulation, cardiac anesthesia