Recovery from isoflurane anesthesia : a comparison with halothane

Abstract

The aims of this study are: 1. to compare the recovery times assessed by clinical observation, the Ball Bearing Test and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test between isoflurane and halothane anesthesia 2. to compare the side effects of isoflurane anesthesia with halothane anesthesia 64 female patients were randomly assigned to halothane or isoflurane group. The mean ages were 32.34 ± 6.47 and 35.13 ± 5.78 years for halothane and isoflurane groups respectively. All of them underwent elective gynecologic diagnostic laparoscopy and anesthesia times were 45.44 ± 29.46 and 31.78 ± 13.77 minutes for halothane and isoflurane groups respectively. Recovery was assessed by the time to extubation, orientation, response to verbal command, sit up, stand up, walk and success in obtaining the base line performance of the BBT. and DSST. The observer was blinded to the anesthetic techniques that the patients received. Recovery tests showed no difference between the two groups except the time to stand up and walk. The recovery times assessed by the BBT. and DSST. were 87.19 ± 26.79 and 77.81 ± 35.63 minutes for halothane and isoflurane groups respectively. From questionnaire, both halothane and isoflurane groups showed no difference in incidence of side effects and satisfaction of patients. However, isoflurane is costly compared to halothane.