ANESTHESIA - A PROBLEM FOR PATIENTS WITH NARCOLEPSY

Anesthesiologists do rarely see patients with narcolepsy because of th e low prevalence of this disease. It is likely that anesthetic drugs r educe awakeness and muscle tone after surgery. With an extensive quest ionnaire we investigated the subjective postsurgery disturbance of 29 patients. 46,4% of those, who underwent general anesthesia complain ab out hypersomnia, sleep paralysis or loss of memory whereas only 5,8% ( N = 1) of the patients getting regional anesthesia report about simila r symptoms. The study of the anesthesia records of these patients did not reveal any remark of objective disturbance. We conclude that regio nal anesthesia seems to be more comfortable for the subjective feeling of patients with narcolepsy.