Editorial Type: CASE REPORT
 | 
Online Publication Date: 09 Sept 2025

Single-Agent Total Intravenous Anesthesia With Remimazolam for an Elderly Man Undergoing Ambulatory Oral Surgery: A Case Report

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DMD,
DDS, MS, MBS, MA,
DMD,
DMD,
DMD,
DDS, PhD,
DMD,
DMD, MSEd, and
DMD, MD
Article Category: Case Report
Page Range: 159 – 166
DOI: 10.2344/24-0017
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Remimazolam is an ultrashort-acting benzodiazepine approved for procedural sedation in 2020 by the US Food and Drug Administration; however, dosing information originating from the US is limited. No existing literature details infusion rates of remimazolam delivered by manually adjusted infusion pumps. This case report describes the administration of manually infused remimazolam to an 86-year-old man for the surgical extraction of third molars under procedural sedation. Following an initial dose of 4 mg delivered over 1 minute, the remimazolam infusion was titrated according to the patient’s response from a starting rate of 15 mg/h to achieve deep sedation/general anesthesia. The maximum infusion rate was 30 mg/h, and a total dose of 14.1 mg of remimazolam was administered over 28 minutes. The surgery was successfully completed, the patient was satisfied with the anesthetic postoperatively, and he recovered and was discharged home without incident. Further studies are needed to fully characterize remimazolam infusions for a variety of patients using manually adjusted infusion pumps for use in the US.

Copyright: © 2025 by the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology 2025
Figure 1.
Figure 1.

Single-Agent Total Intravenous Anesthetic With Remimazolam Using a Manually Adjusted Infusion Pump

The orange line represents the initial bolus of remimazolam, and the yellow line represents the maintenance infusion rate of remimazolam over time. Events during the procedure that influenced titration of the remimazolam infusion are illustrated with arrows.


Figure 2.
Figure 2.

Perioperative Vital Signs and Remimazolam Infusion Rates During a Single-Agent Total Intravenous Anesthetic Using a Manually Adjusted Infusion Pump

The gold line represents the initial bolus of remimazolam, and the yellow line represents the maintenance infusion rate of remimazolam over time. The patient’s blood pressure, mean arterial pressure (MAP), and heart rate are illustrated over time.


Contributor Notes

Address correspondence to Dr Alexander J. DeBernardo, Department of Dental Anesthesiology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, G-89 Salk Hall, 3501 Terrace Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; alexdebo117@gmail.com.
Received: 08 Apr 2024
Accepted: 10 Mar 2025
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