Recovery after anaesthesia was assessed using the Maddox Wing Test (MW), Critical Flicker Fusion Threshold (CFF), Choice Reaction Time (CRT), Line Analogue Rating Scales (LARS), a Tracking Test and a test of Semantic Memory in 44 patients who had undergone minor gynaecological surgery. The patients were allocated randomly to one of two groups and received either methohexitone, nitrous oxide, oxygen and halothane or methohexitone, alfentanil, nitrous oxide and oxygen. Immediate recovery was more rapid in the alfentanil group (P less than 0.01), but apnoea (P less than 0.05) and hiccups (P less than 0.05) were more common. Except for the CFF test, which showed the alfentanil patients to be less sedated than the halothane patients on the morning after anaesthesia (P less than 0.05), the results of the tests were similar in both groups and showed, initially, substantial impairment of psychomotor functions which gradually returned to baseline values. This comparison with halothane anaesthesia indicates that a technique using methohexitone and alfentanil is suitable for day-case surgery.
Summary
A randomised single‐blind trial was performed to compare the effects on cardiac rhythm of isoflurane and halothane in 100 dental outpatients having extractions under general anaesthesia in the dental chair without tracheal intubation. The incidence of supraventricular dysrhythmias did not differ significantly. No patient in the isoflurane group developed a ventricular dysrhythmia, whilst nine of those who received halothane did so (p = 0.0013). The quality of anaesthesia was acceptable in the isoflurane group, but induction time was longer (p < 0.05) and the maximum heart rate was faster (p < 0.01). There was no difference in the maximum end tidal carbon dioxide concentrations measured in a further 20 cases.
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