The effects of brief sevoflurane-nitrous oxide anaesthesia upon children's postoperative cognition and behaviour

Abstract

This study assessed the effects of brief sevoflurane-nitrous oxide anaesthesia on children's postoperative cognition, behaviour and physical morbidity. Forty-eight children aged 5?10Â years undergoing anaesthesia without premedication for multiple dental extractions, and 48 control children, performed tests of choice reaction time, attention, psychomotor co-ordination and memory pre-operatively (baseline), prior to discharge and at 48Â h (anaesthesia group only). Physical and psychological morbidity were recorded at 1Â week. Mean choice reaction time and psychomotor co-ordination were significantly impaired postoperatively but had recovered at 48Â h. However, measures of performance variability suggested the presence of residual impairment. Profound retrograde amnesia affected postoperative and 48-h recall of pictorial stimuli presented prior to anaesthesia, but recognition memory was unimpaired. Attention-seeking, tantrums, crying and nightmares were occurring more frequently in some 8?20% of children 1Â week after the procedure.