Xiong M, Chen B, Hu Z, et al. - Researchers aimed at determining and comparing the effective doses of dexmedetomidine for sedation in parturient patients who underwent Cesarean section (CS) and nonpregnant women who underwent elective gynecologic surgery. They divided 60 females aged between 25 and 35 into two groups. A bolus dose of dexmedetomidine was administered to the parturient group over 15 min after the delivery of the fetus and placenta. In the nonpregnant women group, intravenous administration of a bolus of dexmedetomidine was done upon the completion of spinal anesthesia. For adequate sedation in parturient patients, the ED50 of dexmedetomidine was 1.58 μg/kg vs 0.96 μg/kg in nonpregnant women. The ED95 of dexmedetomidine in parturients was 1.80 μg/kg vs 1.10 μg/kg in nonpregnant women. Findings revealed that in parturients who were provided spinal anesthesia for CS, the ED50 of dexmedetomidine for target sedation is greater than 1.5 times that in nonpregnant women who were administered spinal anesthesia for lower abdominal gynecologic surgery. The dose of dexmedetomidine needed to attain optimal sedation following spinal anesthesia is identified to be much higher in parturients than in nonpregnant women undergoing gynecologic surgeries.