Objective: to determine the effect of Riker Sedation-Agitation scale on clinical outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery in Imam Ali hospital, Kermanshah, Iran.Study design: Randomized. Study population: Patients undergoing open heart surgery and admitted to the intensive care unit at Imam Ali hospital. Major inclusion criteria: having an endotracheal tube, being under mechanical ventilation, having acceptable clinical and para clinical criteria such as left ventricular ejection fraction greater than 30% and lack history of cerebrovascular accident. Major exclusion criteria: mechanical ventilation for more than 24 hours, need to reintubation, length of operation time more than 4 hours, requiring reoperation. Sample Size:116 patients. Intervention: each hour in the intervention group, the patients were evaluated using Riker scale and based on patients receiving sedative medication and in the control group, based on the physiological criteria, medicine was given. Intervention time: The patient's arrival to the intensive care unit until extubation. Primary outcomes: sedative usage, length of mechanical ventilation and lengh of stay in intensive care unit and hospital, delirium incidence.