Propofol Versus Sevoflurane Recovery After Gynecological Surgery

Overview

80% of 25 million American who undergo surgery describe moderate to severe pain. The use of multimodal analgesic techniques can attenuate patient's postoperative pain and several different medication have been found to be effective. Pain can significantly affect patient's quality of recovery after surgery. Volatile anesthetics can increase sensitivity to pain at the low concentrations present on emergence from anesthesia. Propofol may have analgesic effect at sedative doses. The effects of propofol,when used for anesthesia maintenance, on postoperative pain have demonstrated controversial results with some investigators showing a potential benefit whereas others have not shown any benefit. Propofol for maintenance of anesthesia has been advocated as an strategy for high risk patients even though it has shown controversial results on reduction of Post operative nausea and vomiting. A comparison of propofol vs.volatile anesthetic in regards to the time required by patients to meet discharge criteria has also shown conflicting results.The QOR 40 is a validated instrument that has been specifically developed to evaluate patients recovery after anesthesia and surgery. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of maintenance of anesthesia with two agents (Propofol and Sevoflurane) on quality of recovery after ambulatory surgery Significance: the results of this study can lead to the discovery of an anesthesia technique that is associated with a better recovery for patients after ambulatory surgery. Research question is: do patients anesthetized with propofol have a better quality of recovery after ambulatory anesthesia than patients anesthetized with Sevoflurane? The hypothesis: patients anesthetized with propofol will have better quality of recovery than patients anesthetized with Sevoflurane after ambulatory surgery.

Subjects will be recruited up to the day of surgery. 90 subjects will be randomly allocated into 2 groups, using a computer generated table of random numbers: anesthetic maintenance with Sevoflurane or anesthetic maintenance with Propofol . Subjects will be premedicated with intravenous (IV) midazolam 0.04 mg/kg. Routine ASA monitors will be applied. Anesthesia will be induced with remifentanil infusion started at 0.1 mcg/kg/minute titrated to keep blood pressure within 20% of the baseline and propofol 1.0 -2.0 mg/kg or sevoflurane induction. Tracheal intubation will be facilitated with rocuronium (0.6 mg/kg) or succinylcholine (1-2mg /kg). Anesthesia will be maintained with Sevoflurane or a Propofol infusion titrated to keep a bispectral index between 40-60, remifentanil infusion started at 0.1mcg/kg/min titrated to keep blood pressure within 20 % of baseline values, and rocuronium that will be administered at the discretion of the anesthesiologist. Upon termination of the surgery, neuromuscular blockade will be antagonized with a combination of neostigmine 0.05mg/kg and glycopyrrolate 0.01 mg/kg. Subjects will also receive Ketorolac 30 mg IV after discontinuation of remifentanil for postoperative pain control. Ondansetron 4 mg IV will be administered to decrease postoperative nausea and vomiting. Subjects will receive IV hydromorphone 0.4 mg q 5 minutes as needed to achieve a verbal rating score for pain \<4 out of 10.They will also receive reglan 10 mg IV as a rescue antiemetic, if not effective, a second dose of Zofran 4 mg IV will be given in PACU. 24 hours after surgery a QOR 40 will be administered to the patient by one of the investigators. The primary and secondary outcomes will be assessed by an independent observer who will be blinded to group allocation.