Scholars@Duke
Ruba Sajdeya

Ruba Sajdeya

Medical Instructor in the Department of Anesthesiology
Anesthesiology
ruba.sajdeya@duke.edu
3 Genome Court, MSRB III, 6136, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Cannabis use and acute postoperative pain outcomes in older adults: a propensity matched retrospective cohort study.

Journal Article Reg Anesth Pain Med · October 6, 2025 INTRODUCTION: Cannabis use is increasing among older adults, but its impact on postoperative pain outcomes remains unclear in this population. We examined the association between cannabis use and postoperative pain levels and opioid doses within 24 hours o ... Full text Link to item Cite

Review of cannabis use and propofol anesthesia: recent insights and clinical implications.

Journal Article Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · October 1, 2025 PURPOSE OF REVIEW: We examine recent evidence and clinical implications of pharmacological interactions between cannabis and propofol, perioperative considerations for propofol administration, including dosing adjustments and cardiovascular effects, summar ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early Vasopressor Utilization in Critically Ill Patients With Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Journal Article Crit Care Med · October 1, 2025 OBJECTIVES: Evidence regarding vasopressor support for acute spinal cord injury (SCI) is lacking. We report early vasopressor use and hospital outcomes in patients with SCI. DESIGN: Propensity-score standardized mortality ratio-weighted retrospective cohor ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early Blood Pressure Targets in Acute Spinal Cord Injury: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Journal Article JAMA Netw Open · September 2, 2025 IMPORTANCE: Early blood pressure management is central to neurologic resuscitation of spinal cord injury; however, the role of augmented blood pressure is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of augmented vs conventional blood pressure on ... Full text Link to item Cite

Legalization of Smokable Medical Cannabis and Changes in the Dispensed Amount of Δ-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol Per Patient.

Journal Article Cannabis Cannabinoid Res · April 2025 Introduction: Florida's medical cannabis (marijuana) program is among the largest in the United States. Smokable cannabis forms were not legally available in this program until 2019, and five years after other forms of cannabis were available. This study a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cannabis Use and Inhalational Anesthesia Administration in Older Adults: A Propensity-matched Retrospective Cohort Study.

Journal Article Anesthesiology · November 1, 2024 BACKGROUND: Cannabis use is associated with higher intravenous anesthetic administration. Similar data regarding inhalational anesthetics are limited. With rising cannabis use prevalence, understanding any potential relationship with inhalational anestheti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Harnessing artificial intelligence for predicting and managing postoperative pain: a narrative literature review.

Journal Article Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · October 1, 2024 PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review examines recent research on artificial intelligence focusing on machine learning (ML) models for predicting postoperative pain outcomes. We also identify technical, ethical, and practical hurdles that demand continued investi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identifying Potential Factors Associated With Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Outcomes: Retrospective Cohort Study Using Machine Learning on Real-World Data.

Journal Article JMIR Public Health Surveill · September 26, 2024 BACKGROUND: Racial disparities in COVID-19 incidence and outcomes have been widely reported. Non-Hispanic Black patients endured worse outcomes disproportionately compared with non-Hispanic White patients, but the epidemiological basis for these observatio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identifying Potential Factors Associated With Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Outcomes: Retrospective Cohort Study Using Machine Learning on Real-World Data (Preprint)

Journal Article · November 12, 2023 BACKGROUNDRacial disparities in COVID-19 incidence and outcomes have been widely reported. Non-Hispanic Black patients endured worse outcomes disproportionately compared with non-Hispanic ... Full text Cite

Developing and validating a natural language processing algorithm to extract preoperative cannabis use status documentation from unstructured narrative clinical notes.

Journal Article J Am Med Inform Assoc · July 19, 2023 OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop a natural language processing algorithm (NLP) using machine learning (ML) techniques to identify and classify documentation of preoperative cannabis use status. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We developed and applied a keywor ... Full text Link to item Cite

Protocol of a Combined Cohort and Cross-Sectional Study of Persons Receiving Medical Cannabis in Florida, USA: The Medical Marijuana and Me (M3) Study.

Journal Article Med Cannabis Cannabinoids · 2023 Significant knowledge gaps regarding the effectiveness and safety of medical cannabis (MC) create clinical challenges for MC physicians, making treatment recommendations and patients choosing treatment among the growing number of options offered in dispens ... Full text Link to item Cite

What's Up Your Sleeve? A Scoping Review of White Coat Contamination and Horizontal Microbial Transmission.

Journal Article South Med J · June 2022 OBJECTIVES: White coats have been suggested to serve as fomites carrying and transmitting pathogenic organisms and potentially increasing the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). We aimed to examine the current evidence regarding white coat con ... Full text Link to item Cite

Proceedings of the 2022 Cannabis Clinical Outcomes Research Conference.

Journal Article Med Cannabis Cannabinoids · 2022 The Consortium for Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes Research, a multi-university collaboration established by the state of Florida in the USA, hosted its second annual Cannabis Clinical Outcomes Research Conference (CCORC) in May 2022. CCORC was held as ... Full text Link to item Cite

Fairness in the prediction of acute postoperative pain using machine learning models.

Journal Article Front Digit Health · 2022 INTRODUCTION: Overall performance of machine learning-based prediction models is promising; however, their generalizability and fairness must be vigorously investigated to ensure they perform sufficiently well for all patients. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cannabis use assessment and documentation in healthcare: Priorities for closing the gap.

Journal Article Prev Med · December 2021 Several factors, including the lack of a systematic cannabis use assessment within healthcare systems, have led to significant under-documentation of cannabis use and its correlates in medical records, the unpreparedness of clinicians, and poor quality of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Change in marijuana use and its associated factors among persons living with HIV (PLWH) during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a prospective cohort.

Journal Article Drug Alcohol Depend · August 1, 2021 BACKGROUND: Emerging literature shows increased drug use during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, limited research has examined the change in marijuana use among persons living with HIV (PLWH). This study aimed to investigate how marijuana use changed in a c ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Mapping Literature Review of Medical Cannabis Clinical Outcomes and Quality of Evidence in Approved Conditions in the USA from 2016 to 2019.

Journal Article Med Cannabis Cannabinoids · June 2021 In 2017, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report comprehensively evaluated the body of evidence regarding cannabis health effects through the year 2016. The objectives of this study are to identify and map the most recent ... Full text Link to item Cite

Perinatal Cannabis Exposures and Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Journal Article Med Cannabis Cannabinoids · June 2021 Full text Link to item Cite

Practice Patterns and Training Needs Among Physicians Certifying Patients for Medical Marijuana in Florida.

Journal Article J Prim Care Community Health · 2021 BACKGROUND: Little is known about the clinical training or practice experiences among physicians who certify patients for medical marijuana. The objective of this study was to determine information sources, factors influencing recommendations, clinical pra ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reasons for Marijuana Use and Its Perceived Effectiveness in Therapeutic and Recreational Marijuana Users Among People Living with HIV in Florida.

Journal Article Cannabis · 2021 Therapeutic and recreational marijuana use are common among people living with HIV (PLWH). However, the distinction between perceived "therapeutic" and "recreational" use is blurred, with little information about the specific reasons for use and perceived ... Full text Link to item Cite

Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial of Naltrexone Among Women Living With HIV: Correlations Between Reductions in Self-Reported Alcohol Use and Changes in Phosphatidylethanol.

Journal Article Alcohol Clin Exp Res · January 2021 BACKGROUND: Direct biomarkers such as phosphatidylethanol (PEth) have the capability to detect heavy alcohol use, but it is unclear how strongly self-reported reduction in alcohol use correlates with reduction in PEth. We sought to explore the strength of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Need to Improve Dose Measurements in Studies of Marijuana Use for Pain

Journal Article JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes · March 1, 2020 Full text Cite