Indication Number of studies Total number of patients Number of studies showing significant effects
Anxiety 15[22-36] 1266 13[22-34]
Sedation 1 [37] 60 0
Analgesia (pain scores and/or analgesic requirements) 13[22-24,26-30,32,33,35,38,46] 941 6[22,24,27,30,38]
Sleep 4[23,25,38,46] 311 4[23,25,38,46]
Delirium 3[25,36,63] 353 3[25,36,63]
Oxidative stress 3[39,40,71] 121 1[71]
Sepsis - - -
Table 1: The table documents all randomized studies investigating the effect of exogenous melatonin administration in patients undergoing surgery