INDUCTION AND EMERGENCE IN INFANTS LESS-THAN 60 WEEKS POST-CONCEPTUALAGE - COMPARISON OF THIOPENTAL, HALOTHANE, SEVOFLURANE AND DESFLURANE

We have studied 40 infants with a post-conceptual age of less than 60 weeks undergoing general anaesthesia for herniotomy. Patients were ana esthetized with 1 MAC equivalent values for age and agent and allocate d randomly to receive halothane, sevoflurane or thiopental for inducti on, and halothane, sevoflurane or desflurane for maintenance of anaest hesia. At induction, both time to acceptance of a face mask and loss o f eyelash reflex were recorded. Emergence times were noted by a blinde d observer. Induction and emergence times were similar between the hal othane and sevoflurane groups but were consistently shorter in the des flurane group compared with the halothane or sevoflurane groups. There were no problems at extubation or significant apnoea in any group. In duction of anaesthesia in this population was no quicker with sevoflur ane than with halothane and the method used for induction did not infl uence recovery time. Maintenance of anaesthesia with desflurane result ed in a shorter recovery time in infants in whom anaesthesia was induc ed with halothane or thiopental. Desflurane maintenance may be particu larly beneficial in the neonate.