Age-related differences in recovery from inhalational anesthesia: a retrospective study.

Abstract

It is important to understand the anesthetic requirements of elderly patients. However, little is knownabout age-related recovery from inhalational anesthetics. In this retrospectivestudy, we compared age-related differences inrecovery from three inhalational anesthetics in elderly subjects. Patients were investigated as three age groups which can be defined as age ranges pediatric (< 15years), adult (15-64years), and elderly patients ( > 65years) under general anesthesia using inhalational anesthetics. Anesthesia and surgery times, drug end-tidal concentrations, the time to first movement, time to eye opening, body movement, extubation, and discharge were recorded. The data were analyzed using a Kruskal-Wallis test and Steel-Dwass multiple comparisons. A total of 594 patients were included in the study. In inhalational anesthetics such as sevoflurane, isoflurane, or desflurane, recovery from general anesthesia was not significantly different among age groups (P > 0.05). In inhalational group, recovery was significantly 5-40% faster in desflurane group than in other inhalational anesthetics groups (P < 0.05). There were 20% faster recovery in pediatric and adult groups with desflurane than in elderly with desflurane group. Drug end-tidal inhalational concentrations in pediatric group were significantly higher than that in adult and elderly groups of all inhalational anesthetics, respectively (P < 0.05). In the current study, we have found that recovery from desflurane was faster in younger patients than in other inhalational anesthetics and aged patients.