SPONTANEOUS MOVEMENT AFTER INJECTION OF PROPOFOL

Spontaneous movement following injection of propofol at induction was studied in 303 patients. Two hundred patients were Caucasians and 103 were Asians. In a pilot study carried out prior to the main study, 26% of the Asians moved at induction as compared with 6% of the Caucasian s. The patients were studied in relation to a number of variables; age , sex, weight, height, race, smoker/non smoker, vegetarian/non vegetar ian, alcohol consumption, premedication, use of fentanyl at induction and dose of propofol. When race was included as the sole variable ther e teas a marginal but not significant difference between the two group s in terms of movement (p = 0.06). However, when the other recorded va riables were taken into account, race was not included as a predictor of whether or not the patient moved. The best model for predicting whe ther the patients moved or not combines the variables weight and dose of propofol. Patients were more likely to move if they were lighter an d the nose of propofol used at induction was higher.