The recovery of Senegalese African blacks from intravenous anesthesia withpropofol and remifentanil is slower than that of Caucasians

Differences in sensitivity to anesthetic drugs have already been described among races. This study was designed to comparatively investigate the anest hetic requirements of two different ethnic groups: Caucasians and African b lacks. Forty-five Caucasians from Italy and 45 African blacks from Senegal, who underwent general IV anesthesia with propofol and remifentanil, were c omparatively evaluated for anesthetic depth and time lapsed before recovery . We used an electroencephalographic-derived index of depth of anesthesia, the bispectral index (BIS), and evaluation of clinical variables to assess the depth of anesthesia and the recovery trend. Mean BIS values from Caucas ians after propofol discontinuation returned to baseline (92-100) in approx imately 8 min, whereas in African blacks BIS values remained < 80 for some 30 min. Time to eye opening was 10.6 +/- 4.8 min in Caucasians versus 16.9 +/- 8.8 min in African blacks (P < 0.001). Time to respond to loud verbal c ommands was 14.8 +/- 9.1 min in African blacks versus 9.1 +/- 4.2 min in Ca ucasians (P < 0.01). During anesthetic induction, the mean arterial pressur e decreased by 20% in Caucasians and by only 10% in African blacks. We conc lude that the recovery from general anesthesia with propofol was slower in African blacks compared with Caucasian patients.