Tag: Remifentanil

Remifentanil is a potent, ultra-short-acting synthetic opioid with an analgesic potency similar to fentanyl [1.6.5]. When administered, patients often want to know: what does remifentanil feel like? The experience is characterized by rapid and powerful pain relief coupled with sedation.

The most commonly reported adverse reactions to the potent opioid remifentanil include respiratory depression, bradycardia (slow heart rate), hypotension (low blood pressure), and skeletal muscle rigidity [1.2.2]. Understanding 'What is the common side effect of remifentanil?' is crucial for patient safety in anesthetic settings.

With a context-sensitive half-life of just 3 to 5 minutes, remifentanil is an ultra-short-acting opioid designed for situations requiring rapid onset and predictable offset of effect, regardless of the infusion's duration. This unique pharmacokinetic profile makes it a highly titratable analgesic used in controlled settings like surgery, intensive care, and labor and delivery for precise pain management.

Intravenously administered adenosine has an exceptionally short half-life of less than 10 seconds, making it one of the most rapidly cleared drugs from the human body [1.4.1, 1.4.3, 1.4.4, 1.4.5]. Understanding the concept of 'half-life' is crucial to answering the question: what drug leaves the body the fastest?