Background: Hypertension and tachycardia during emergence from anesthesia for craniotomy could increase risks of cerebral complications. Several anesthetic, sedative, and antihypertensive drugs have been suggested that may be successful at suppressing these unwanted hemodynamic consequences.

Objective: To study the equivalent efficacy and side effects of two antihypertensive drugs, diltiazem and labetalol.

Material and Method: A block randomized control trial was performed in 184 patients who developed emergence hypertensive response after craniotomy for supratentorial tumor removal. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) of each patient was suppressed by 2.5 mg of study drugs and repeated with fix dosage of 2.5 mg every two to three minutes to maintain SBP lower than 140 mmHg with a cumulative dose within 20 mg. Data regarding demographic, successful rate in controlling hypertension, drug dosage, and incidence of side effects were analyzed.

Results: The success rate of treatment of labetalol was equivalent to diltiazem (87.1% and 80.2% respectively) [p = 0.003, 95% CI = 6.88 (-2.06 to 15.8)]. There was no statistical significant difference on dosage of drugs used or incidence of side effect (hypotension, bradycardia, heart block, and bronchospasm). Median (minimum-maximum) dosage of labetalol and diltiazem were 10 mg (2.5-20 mg) and 10 mg (2.5-20 mg) respectively. The expense for labetalol was 1/6 of diltiazem.

Conclusion: Labetalol has equivalent efficacy to diltiazem. Both drugs used low median dosage giving low incidence of side-effects. Labetalol is a good alternative drug to control hypertensive response during emergence from anesthesia for post-craniotomy.

Keywords: Labetalol, Diltiazem, Emergence hypertension, Craniotomy